The citizens of Banjaluka are looking for greater transparency when it comes to million loans from the City of Banjaluka. They want the general public to be involved in deciding what the money from the loan is spent on.
The city of Banjaluka raised a new multi-million loan less than a month ago. This time to tidy up the city center. Activists demand that the opinion of citizens be respected on the millions of loans and their spending, that is, that the priorities be respected.
Sanda Vukojević, a member of the Citizens’ Initiative for the Plan, says: “We don’t know who started the initiative, we don’t know who, we don’t know anything, the plan, we don’t know who will participate, we don’t know the scope, after all, we don’t know what our city center will look like.”
Stanivuković: You can’t please everyone
The mayor of Banjaluka accepts some criticism, but says that he cannot please everyone. He is convinced that he and his team are running the city well.
The mayor of Banjaluka, Draško Stanivuković, says: “We take care of everything, but you simply cannot make everyone happy with every aspect, but we think we are doing a good job for the city.”
The city opposition does not agree with Stanivuković. Councilor Igor Mandić warns that huge amounts of money are being spent on things that are not a priority, while citizens’ needs are not being listened to.
Igor Mandić, councilor in the Assembly of the city of Banjaluk, adds: “Taking on debt for some cosmetic projects, in order to remake some things that are realistically functional, is an indicator of an unfriendly and wrong attitude towards the needs of citizens and priorities in the city.”
Both PSS and SNSD voted for a loan of 18 million
Interestingly, the councilors of Stanivuković’s PSS and the councilors of Dodik’s SNSD voted for the approval of the loan of 18 million marks. Not long after that, the decision was made that Milorad Dodik’s godfather, Mile Radišić, would build a new building in the city center.
