BH-Gas claims: Bečarević is spreading falsehoods

The company BH-Gas has responded to statements by Almir Bečarević, former director of the company, who also filed criminal charges against several individuals, which were forwarded to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.

We publish the response in full:

- In the published article „Bečarević filed criminal charges against BH-Gas executives“, Mr. Almir Bečarević made a series of false statements about the management of the Public Enterprise BH-Gas d.o.o.

We point out to the public that the Audit Office has for years pointed out a problem in BH-Gas d.o.o. concerning the recording of this public company's obligations in relation to foreign loans. The current management, after several working meetings with the competent institutions, managed to resolve this long-standing problem, which previous managements, including the one headed by Mr. Almir Bečarević, failed to resolve. Namely, the Federal Ministry of Finance informed BH-Gas d.o.o. on 21.11.2014 about the status of obligations under the said loans, stating that the IBRD loans are consolidated loans and that the repayment of obligations under the said World Bank loans for end users based in the territory of the Federation of BiH was taken over by the Federation of BiH.

According to the provisions of Article 8 of the Law on the Initial Balance Sheet of Enterprises and Banks, enterprises were obliged to report liabilities to banks based on foreign loans obtained before 31.03.1992 in the passive sub-balance, and pursuant to Article 11 of the said Law, enterprises were obliged to increase state, i.e., social capital by the value of such liabilities. BH-Gas d.o.o.

Based on the letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the management concluded that the company has no financial obligations under IBRD loans, nor obligations based on accrued interest, and accordingly a decision was made to reclassify the IBRD loan liabilities in favor of state capital, and the provisions for interest, which were made in the period 2000-2014 for IBRD loans, were reversed in favor of income.

The Audit Committee carried out a check of the completeness and objectivity of the financial statements of the public company BH-Gas d.o.o. as of 31.12.2014, and gave its positive opinion, welcoming the resolution of this problem.

The Law stipulates that the Company cannot have liabilities in its balance sheets for foreign loans obtained before 31.03.1992, and that the value of these loans must increase state, i.e., social capital, which BH-Gas did with the prior consent of the Federal Ministry of Finance.

BH-Gas d.o.o. Sarajevo will take all legally permitted measures to protect its rights and interests, and will also file a criminal complaint against Mr. Bečarević on the grounds of suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of false reporting.