Minister Edin Forto's estimated assets nearly one million marks: I am doing well in BiH, but it can always be better

Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Edin Forto earns around 5,700 KM per month. Almost five years before taking over the ministerial position, he earned up to 3,700 KM as Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton (KS).

Minister Forto, however, believes that these amounts are not dizzyingly high because he earned more in the private sector in director positions than in politics.

"It is unpopular to say, but I moved from a better salary to the public sector. I had better income," Forto told the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN), referring to the period from 2013 to 2015 when he worked as a director in the NEXE group.

Although his income in official positions has increased in recent years, Forto has not bought new real estate. He says he used to deal in reselling real estate that he bought with loans, but he no longer does that: "I had a lot of loans, but I paid them all back".

Minister Forto lives in Sarajevo with his wife and two children in an apartment he inherited from his parents. He estimates this property to be worth 250,000 KM. He also owns 2,350 square meters of land in the capital of BiH, which he believes is worth 587,000 KM.

Forto has been reporting the same real estate since he entered politics. In addition to these, he owns a "Renault Kadjar" vehicle worth 37,000 KM and shares in the companies "Feroelektro", "Konjuh", and "Zrak". Together with his wife, he has savings of 50,000 KM in UniCredit bank.

Forto says that the income of public officials at the state level is "great", but that ministers and prime ministers in cantonal governments who "work ten hours a day for the salary of a middle manager in some corporation" are not adequately paid.

"I am doing well in BiH, but it can always be better," Forto concluded.

From the USA to BiH

Edin Forto graduated in journalism and mass communications from the Faculty of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina in America at the end of the nineties, and at the beginning of the 2000s, he obtained a master's degree in international finance and business from Columbia University in New York.

He began his career as a political analyst in New York, but soon returned to BiH, where he worked in the private sector for more than ten years. He began his political career in 2009 as a member of Our Party, which elected him president in September 2021.

In the general elections in 2014 and 2018, he was elected as a representative in the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton, and at the same time, he was delegated to the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH from the category of others.

Forto served as Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton from 2019 to 2023, and at the beginning of 2023, he was appointed as the state Minister of Transport and Communications. In an interview with CIN, he emphasized that the private interests of public officials must be behind public interest, which is why he fought for the adoption of the Law on Reporting and Verification of Data on Assets of Public Office Holders in Sarajevo Canton during his term as Prime Minister of KS.

"I think everyone who enters politics and receives a salary from the budget must disclose everything," Forto concluded.