Klarić: Gas is more expensive due to government incompetence, not global price hikes

(Patria) - Gas in BiH will be more expensive not because of global energy price increases on the world market, but due to poor management of the energy sector by the FBiH Government and the relevant minister Džindić - says Sanela Klarić, representative of Our Party in the FBiH Parliament.

Experts, including representative Klarić, have already warned that by switching to TurkStream, the FBiH Government risks the Hungarian gas transporter suing the FBiH Government, Energoinvest, and BH-Gas, and seeking 23 million US dollars in damages if the contract with the Hungarians is terminated without reason.

“Instead of creating preconditions for adopting measures that will protect our energy sector in the crisis caused by the pandemic through strategic decisions, the FBiH Government, by switching to TurkStream, is further complicating the situation, taking risks, making illogical moves, and leaving citizens in fear of energy shortages. In this regard, the FBiH Parliament has never officially received information about the developments in the gas sector; instead, as is the case now, MPs receive it from the media, not from the relevant minister. My position is that we, as MPs in the FBiH Parliament, must do everything to protect citizens because it is clear that this government has no such intention. Instead of achieving energy independence through the project of building the southern gas pipeline connection, this government has halted all work on this project and is placing us in a situation of even greater dependence and crisis. Citizens must not pay for the mistakes of incompetent ministers and the disoriented FBiH Government.

It is urgently necessary to invite all experts in this field to try to resolve the crisis and mitigate the consequences. The excuse of global price increases is unacceptable because it is offered by those proven to be incompetent and irresponsible. Minister Džindić should resign, as this is not the only catastrophic move in his career at the expense of citizens. It is enough to recall the debacle with the system of incentives for renewable energy sources, which will be discussed further as information is still arriving, then the debacle with insisting on the construction of Block 7 and the related termination of communication with the Energy Community in Vienna, as well as the absence of any strategic and/or action plans for the energy sector. I am also sure that the announced series of criminal charges from BH Gas will further prove all the information that has surfaced in public, and even more so.”