Two weeks after the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Christian Schmidt made the decision to allocate money for the debt payment in the “Viaduct” case, the Slovenian company officially submitted the payment order on Friday.
According to information, on Friday, “Viaduct” submitted the account to which the debt, based on the ruling of the arbitration court in Washington, should be paid.
It is worth noting that by making the decision on the payment of the mentioned debt, Schmidt stated that the amount exceeding 110 million BAM would be taken from the road toll funds that were intended for Republika Srpska (RS).
The account submitted by “Viaduct” on Friday was opened at Bank of America. However, due to the suspicion shown by the authorities in RS and their claims that the account is questionable because it is, as they claim, opened in the Canary Islands, the account is currently being verified.
Therefore, the Office of the Attorney General of BiH and the Central Bank of BiH (CBBiH) are verifying the Bank of America account to determine whether it might be linked to any other suspicious accounts. However, it has been learned that the request was signed by an authorized expert, which should eliminate the possibility of fraud as suggested by the RS authorities.
In addition, it is worth noting that Bank of America is based in the United States (U.S.), but is also active in 40 countries around the world. Accordingly, it is a respectable and one of the largest and best-known banks in the world.
After the official order was submitted, Srdjan Amidzic, Minister of Finance and Treasury of BiH (SNSD), has a deadline of seven days, that is, until Friday, to sign the decision by which the money would be transferred to the account provided in the request.
However, given the previous statements and objections from both Amidzic and other politicians from RS, it is increasingly likely that he will not sign the request, which is why Schmidt stated in his decision that after seven days, the right to sign passes to his deputy in the Ministry of Finance of BiH, Muhamed Hasanovic (SDP).
For reference, after Schmidt made the decision on the debt payment, he specified precisely that it would be paid in the amount of 120 million BAM, from the funds taken from the account where the toll revenues belonging to RS were deposited, N1 writes.
