Kasumović for NAP: The bank is not a solution, BiH must start spending as much as it earns

Former Deputy Minister of Finance of BiH Fuad Kasumović criticized the authorities in BiH in an interview with the Patria news agency, calling them monsters who uncontrollably devour state money. The way BiH authorities run the country's policy, for Kasumović, is akin to a policy any shepherd could conduct.

Nor the fact that entity governments guarantee Turkish and Russian loans in case the IMF does not approve the money, for him, is not a solution.

You know, says Kasumović, going to a bank and asking for money to close a debt is not exactly wisdom. Anyone will give money to the state. Especially to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has water, forests, or power plants.

Kasumović sees the only solution for BiH to exit the crisis in reforms. Particularly in the abolition of cantons, which are one of the biggest burdens for the Federation. 

- A loan is not a solution at all. A bank cannot even be called a solution. Especially not in conditions where it would lend to Bosnia and Herzegovina – says Kasumović, adding that if the IMF wants what is best for BiH citizens, then it should restructure existing loans, and the state should not take on further debt but spend as much money as it has in the treasury. It might be difficult at the start, but very soon, he is sure, it would pay off.

- There are dozens of other ways to patch a budget deficit without taking a loan. Just from debts owed to tax administrations, or the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, millions can be collected. I think that debts to the Indirect Taxation Authority alone amount to around 450 million KM. And this story has been going on for the last ten or more years, but no one cares about it – says Kasumović, adding that significant savings could also be made by reducing public spending, which is enormously high for the conditions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina need a municipality and a state. Well, if you want, maybe some intermediate level that would not be so significant. The state apparatus we currently have, with this many drivers, secretaries, assistants, is not sustainable. You know, we are like a family that earns 1,000 KM a month but has a loan of 2,000 KM. Of course, that is unsustainable – criticizes Kasumović.

If the authorities in BiH do decide on a loan, says this economic expert, then it should be taken for entrepreneurs, who, if they work properly, will fill the state coffers. It is completely insane, he says, to take a loan to finance the severance pay of SNSD MP Dušanka Majkić and others like her.

   He has a feeling that the authorities in BiH are making the country for certain individuals

Kasumović says it is irresponsible that even nine months after the elections in BiH, the state still does not have a serious government.

- The Council of Ministers of BiH has not sent a single law to the parliamentary procedure, in the Federation you have no parliamentary majority but a crisis, and in the end I get the feeling that the authorities in BiH are making the country for certain individuals or certain families, not for the citizens – says Kasumović.