Faster, Stronger, Higher: Cvijanović and Novalić Drive Entity Parallel Slalom in Borrowing

-While they talk about betrayal, they are selling Republika Srpska. I will remind you that every child born in RS is indebted by almost 4,500 KM, and in the Federation by 2,500 KM. Moreover, the Federation has two telecoms, and Republika Srpska has none. Only through the 'Mital' and 'Bobar banka' affairs, they stole more from the people of RS than the amount of this last loan of 500 million KM. So, first they steal from the people, and then they indebt the people. There is no greater betrayal than stealing from your own people!' said Aleksandra Pandurević, Vice-President of SDS, responding to accusations from SNSD.

As early as last August, Pandurević was the first to warn that the debt of RS was growing and exceeded 5.5 billion marks. Almost at the same time, the official public debt of the Federation was published, amounting to 5.6 billion KM, writes the Patria News Agency.

Comrades, the debts have arrived

Republika Srpska borrows primarily to cover the budget deficit, current liquidity deficit, and to settle existing debt. The Federation does the same, albeit in somewhat lower annual amounts.

The fact is that both Republika Srpska and the Federation have borrowed enormously from commercial banks. These are, unfortunately, short-term and the most expensive loans. Those involved in finance know that budgets can recover very difficultly from these short-term loans from commercial banks.

The situation with borrowing in Republika Srpska, led by Prime Minister Željka Cvijanović, is tragic. They do not even publish bilateral loans received from the Russian Federation and partly from the Republic of Serbia. A particular problem is the borrowing by municipalities in RS, which have long struggled to service their debts.

Although they act casually, the borrowing situation in the Federation is very serious. Namely, about two months ago, the Prime Minister of the Federation, Fadil Novalić, announced a loan from a Turkish commercial bank amounting to 200 million marks.

It seems tragic that our executive branch does not even bother to announce when this loan became operational. Public debt is called public precisely because it must be regularly disclosed to the public. After all, it is largely borne by the citizens of a country.

Comrades, the debts have overtaken us

Pandurević talks about the resources sold in RS, and the money from the sales has evaporated without real development results. Namely, money from privatization and the sale of state-owned companies should have gone into development and employment. There is also a series of affairs that burden the RS budget, especially the criminal robberies of 'Bobar banka' and 'Banka Srpska'.

Fortunately, there are no major affairs in the Federation that would swallow taxpayers' money.

In the Federation, it is increasingly being revealed that there are huge debts in healthcare, which deserve far better treatment from cantonal governments than has been the case so far.

The tragedy of both RS and the Federation is identical. All the borrowing they undertake is to patch budget holes or other budgetary and financial dubiosities and debts. Insignificant funds are allocated for development and employment. This creates a complete losing position where debts grow, and the possibility of development to repay these debts is lost.