Don't touch betting shops and companies in Herzegovina: Arifović "flew out" at the request of Dragan Čović!?

Long-time director of the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Midhat Arifović, was not dismissed due to the expiration of his mandate, as explained at the Federal Government, but was abruptly removed, among other reasons, due to opposing the decisions of ministers from Dragan Čović who wanted to protect betting shops in Herzegovina, reports the news agency Patria.

Arifović was not even informed that he would be „dismissed“. 

-I went out for a lunch break when I was told I had been removed. No one spoke to me or informed me about anything. I am a civil servant, and we do not have mandates, so I can only conclude that there is a political background behind this.

No one is irreplaceable, not even me in this position, but there is a procedure to call me and tell me that I will be removed. Or, if the story is that the mandate has expired, then I should be acting director until a new director is elected.

You have directors of the Financial Police or the Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs, Zufer Dervišević and Ibrahim Tirka, who have been in their so-called mandates longer than me, yet theirs have not expired, says Arifović for Patria.

He also adds that numerous inspections apparently bothered someone, and he especially received indirect messages regarding tax checks in Međugorje, Neum...  

Unofficially, Patria learns that one of the reasons he „flew out“ was his opposition to the efforts of HDZ's Finance Minister Jelka Miličević to exempt betting shops from the fiscalization process.

As a reminder, the debt of betting shops to the state in the Federation of BiH alone as of October 31, 2014, was over 25 million KM.