Entities Forget Brčko, District Left Without IMF Funds

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Although the Brčko District requested the entity governments in BiH to allocate a portion of the funds they received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the district's institutions, the chances of this happening are slim.

The Brčko District Assembly earlier reviewed information on the distribution of BiH's financial aid from the IMF, worth 300 million euros, from which the district was excluded, and concluded that, in accordance with the final arbitration decision, the Brčko Supervisor should be called upon to help resolve this situation within his competencies, while the mayor is tasked with preparing the necessary documentation in case of initiating a dispute.

Sinisa Milic, President of the Brčko District Assembly, is against initiating a court dispute.

- We should build relations with the entities not only based on participation in international aid. The entities help us with electricity and a number of other issues, Milic said.

Earlier, Esed Kadric, Mayor of Brčko, requested two percent of those funds, in line with the previous distribution of medical aid, which amounts to about 13 million KM. He later corrected himself and stated that he would be satisfied with even one percent.

Incidentally, the Government of Republika Srpska, during negotiations on the distribution of IMF funds, also requested 38 percent of those funds, given that they are allocated for assistance in overcoming the consequences of the coronavirus and that it was previously agreed that this type of aid would be distributed in that manner. However, in the end, it agreed to 33 percent, as defined by the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding between BiH and the IMF. The problem lies precisely in that memorandum, as it defines that IMF funds are distributed so that two-thirds go to the Federation of BiH and one-third to Republika Srpska, while the Brčko District is not mentioned at all.

Previous practice, when it comes to IMF funds, was that the Fiscal Council of BiH made a decision on distribution, and since the Brčko District also has its representative there, they always received a portion of those funds.

This time, given that these are funds based on the allocation of special drawing rights, the Fiscal Council of BiH did not convene because it is not a classic arrangement.

The proposal from the Federation of BiH was for the entities to give up 0.5 percent of the funds, but this was never realized, nor is anyone talking about it today.