DF warns: FBiH Government is selling off its companies while paying pensions with loans

After yesterday's 15th extraordinary session of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament, it is evident that the Government is trying to mislead the public and citizens in every possible way, presenting a series of untruths about the sale of 39 percent of the shares of the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory, the Democratic Front announced, reports Patria.

After the Government adopted the conclusion to postpone the extraordinary auction for the sale of FDS from September 1st to September 15th, 2016, and with the same decision tasked the Prime Minister's cabinet and two deputies to conduct additional analyses of the share value, certain "economic gurus" managed to complete such an analysis in just a few days.

The question arises as to which economic experts comprised this team, enabling them to complete such a complex analysis in such a short period.

The question also arises as to how the Government managed to carry out the sale of FDS without the Parliament's decision. The Government is not the owner of the Federation's assets; the Parliament is, so this sale had to go through it. This reflects the continued complete disrespect for the House of Representatives by the ruling coalition, which is meeting for the first time in 4 months. A series of illegal activities are also intertwined with the operations of the Tobacco Factory, and it is urgently necessary for the Financial Police to review its operations.

We also want to warn citizens about the situation in the Federal Pension and Disability Insurance Fund PIO/MIO, as the FBiH Government is evidently hiding the situation from the citizens. It tasks itself with preparing information on the situation within 45 days, although it previously prepared a draft law on PIO/MIO, so we wonder on what basis it was drafted.

We believe that the information exists, but the government simply does not want to present it to the House of Representatives, so that in the meantime it can adopt a new law, hiding its own inaction behind parliamentary procedures.

What the Government, led by Prime Minister Novalić, is hiding is that the accumulated deficit plus the failure to maintain mandatory reserves in the amount of one monthly pension in the FBiH (155 million KM), which is a legal obligation, amounts to over 300 million KM, leading us to the conclusion that the fund's debt and deficit exceed the capital of the PIO/MIO Fund, which in economic terms represents bankruptcy, only no one has declared it yet.

All of this, for who knows what time, demonstrates the dysfunction of the ruling coalition in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is seriously concerning, and the evident negligence of the Government, led by the Prime Minister.