FBH Government's False Claim of Not Being Indebted: Internal Debts are a Bottomless Pit

By: Izudin Kešetović

Directors of mines affiliated with EPBiH are writing to the FBH Government stating they are forced to initiate bankruptcy. Mistake. All previous directors in the last ten or more years had a legal obligation to do so. If anyone doesn't understand, they should consult the laws.

Since laws do not apply in our country and there is no rule of law, it is logical for miners to demand bankruptcy for the FBH Government. They will respond that it is not according to the law. That's true, but they have created a law for themselves to operate outside the law. How? The owner of a company is obliged to cover losses. The owner is the state. This is an obligation and practice everywhere. The government has consciously omitted this legal obligation for itself in the Law on Business Companies and the Law on Public Enterprises. If this were not the case, all losses of mines, Railways of BiH, Aluminij, Gras, hospitals, and numerous public enterprises and institutions with losses would have to be covered from public revenues or public debt. This is approximately at the level of annual public revenues from taxes belonging to FBiH, and as much again for cantons and cities. At the very least, the annual budgets of all levels of government have been spent.

Is this not a reason to initiate bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings for all levels of government in FBiH? That is why the claim that we are not indebted is false. Internal debts are a "bottomless pit" for burgeoning public spending. That is why the government is seeking tax system reform. Instead of easing the tax burden and abolishing income tax, numerous parafiscal charges, and levies in times of crisis, the government wants to tax even what a miner receives as a meal at work. That is not the point. Other levies need to be invented. Taxing work contracts and forms of income that are in the free or "desirable" grey zone. The entire tragedy of the incompetent government and the FBH Government is that it pays for its incompetence by "presenting" its failures. Of course, with taxpayers' money.

Meanwhile, the trial of the "silver ventilators" is unfolding like an endless movie series. The reason is clear. It is necessary to justify all the misallocated funds and procurements during the declared state of emergency. That is why the FBH Government is ready for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy of the mines will solve nothing because there is no money to cover the losses, which are approaching 1 billion KM. The people pay for the government's bankruptcy with poverty.

The solution is a pre-bankruptcy settlement of all obligations to the state and reorganization of debtors. This measure must be adopted by the FBH Government to relieve mines, Aluminij, Gras, Railways, hospitals, and numerous public enterprises and institutions of their burden. Only then is it possible to embark on public sector reform. Miners should demand that their obligations be written off and partially postponed. Miners should demand that failed mines go into bankruptcy, and they continue operations in healthy mines without obligations. Miners must receive a quality care program for those eligible for retirement or who want severance pay. The state must change the laws whereby losses are booked against itself because its government appoints incompetent management, hires party cadres, voters, relatives, and friends. That is why bankruptcy exists.