The existence of various commissions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) area is not a new fact. However, one of the most important ones for the economic life of this part of the state, the Securities Commission, has not been functioning for a long time. The economic issue has become a political one. At the same time, hundreds of millions of marks were blocked.
The Securities Commission of the FBiH establishes the development of the capital market, creates a fair market, and protects the interests of investors. On their official website, this is the composition of the commission. However, the reality is different. A few days ago, the President of the Commission was banned by the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, so he cannot perform his function on suspicion of abusing his position. The second member retired, and no powers were transferred to the third member.
“He did not transfer his authority to someone else to act on time, and thus the de facto existence of the employees in the commission was called into question due to the possible non-payment of salaries, levies, and non-payment of overhead expenses. In this technical sense, the commission functions until the level of decision-making, ” said Matej Zivkovic, a member of the FBiH Securities Commission.
The problems began after the FBiH leadership appointed a new Commission structure. The President of the FBiH proposed members from the ranks of the Croat people, Vice President proposed members from the ranks of the Bosniak people, and the Vice President Milan Dunovic was chosen from the ranks of the Serb people. However, he proposed a candidate who does not declare himself as a Serb.
“Firstly, the Securities Commission does not have representatives of the people in its convocation, secondly, the Law on the Securities Commission absolutely does not impose the national composition of the president and members of the commission,” Dunovic stressed.
However, that is the main argument why the appointment of the commission has not yet occurred at the session of the House of Peoples of FBiH. The Caucus of Serbs in this House has no support, because there are no representatives of the Serbian people in the Commission. At the last session, the attempt to put the appointment issue on the agenda failed.
“The position of the Caucus of the Serbian people has not changed, so if it goes on the agenda, the position remains to go to the vote on the mechanism of protection of vital national interest,” told Sladjan Ilic, the chairman of the Caucus of Serbs in the FBiH House of Peoples.
“Instead of doing their part of the job professionally, the leadership of the federation decided to fulfill the wishes of its party representatives, the presidents of HDZ and DF, violating the national structure of that body. It is not professional act by this commission, which is stronger than the courts according to the law, because it makes such strong and powerful decisions in terms of financial markets “, pointed out the SDP delegate Aner Zuljevic.
Dunovic says that the competition cannot be annulled, because the appointment process was completed in 2018. The other solution is to amend the Law on the Commission, and the amendments provide for a temporary commission in case of impossibility to appoint their members.
“I believe that this is not a good legal solution because the parliament is neglected and unlimited power in terms of a commission is given for three people,” Dunovic said.
Due to the lack of a political agreement, the capital market suffers. Recapitalizations, issues of securities, registration of supervisory boards are on hold. The association of employers of the FBiH also called for the appointment, because as they say, millions were blocked, and it all happened during a pandemic situation.
“We already have over 300 cases pending in terms of resolving final decisions, and the economic life of the FBiH depends on those decisions. When we look at the issue of recapitalization, we can see that over 100 million, both banks and joint-stock companies, are blocked, ” Zivkovic stated.
This money should be available to the banks for further placements, but that, as well as finding a solution, obviously does not worry our authorities, BHRT writes.
