Croatian Government has not contacted the FBiH Government regarding the crisis at Aluminij

SARAJevo, Zagreb (Patria) – The Croatian Government has not yet expressed interest and has not submitted a proposal to the Government of the Federation of BiH on how to resolve the crisis at Mostar's Aluminij, which is facing closure from Tuesday next week.

The news agency Patria was confirmed on Friday by the FBiH Government that they have not received any calls from Zagreb regarding the crisis at Aluminij.

Aluminij's director Dražen Pandža announced on Wednesday that the Mostar-based company will be shut down in the first minutes of Saturday, due to enormous debts that it can no longer finance. 

In the past few years, Aluminij has been operating at a loss, and the company's total debt amounts to almost 400 million marks, of which more than half is debt for consumed electricity.

Swiss Glencore, which does business with Aluminij, paid for electricity for Aluminij for an additional four days on Thursday, during which time attempts will be made to find a solution for the company.

Around 150 Aluminij workers came to the FBiH Government building in Sarajevo yesterday, seeking help for the company. If Aluminij ceases operations, around 900 workers will be left jobless. 

The trade union yesterday accused the company's management of taking huge salaries and other benefits all along, and in return pushing the company to ruin. Our Party stated that responsibility for Aluminij's collapse should be sought within the HDZ, because, as assessed by Our Party, the HDZ used Mostar's Aluminij as its own credit card.

Professor Slavo Kukić stated on Friday for N1 that so far no one has called upon the small shareholders, who own 44 percent of Aluminij, to fulfill their obligations. And finally, Kukić added, no one is asking about Croatia, which is a 12 percent co-owner of Aluminij, and what its obligations are. 

Professor Kukić said that Croatia has been exploiting electricity from the Buško Lake reservoir in BiH for 30 years, "while today it is waiting to see what will happen with Aluminij." Večernji list recently quoted Croatian Parliament representative Božo Ljubić, who stated that by using the water potential from Buško Lake, Croatia annually generates about 50 million marks in profit through the Orlovac hydroelectric power system.