Feroelektro workers still hungry: Novalić appeases HDZ BiH and allows Stanić to buy time!

The former BiH giant Feroelektro is once again in "state" hands, following a court ruling, but the FBiH Government has not yet managed to fully take over the company from Stanić, who are supported by HDZ BiH, and remove them from this company, writes the Patria News Agency.

On June 20, the FBiH Government was supposed to take possession of Feroelektro after the sales contract with the company "Stanić-Invest" was terminated, but government representatives were prevented from attending the company's Assembly because it was canceled due to a lack of quorum.

Feroelektro workers warned of this scenario, but Prime Minister Fadil Novalić (SDA) was not too concerned, as his coalition partners HDZ BiH and Dragan Čović wanted exactly that.

We have learned that they are in no hurry at all, while workers are unsuccessfully trying to enter the Feroelektro building every day. As previously warned by Senad Smajić, president of the Feroelektro Trade Union, they were expected to cause an incident at the Croatian Embassy, which rented part of the building from Stanić, despite workers' warnings that the rent from the lease should be paid to Feroelektro, not Stanić's daughter company.

We remind you that at the time when Stanić and the Croatian Embassy were negotiating, the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo made a final decision to terminate the privatization contract with the company Stanić Invest due to non-fulfillment of conditions.

The new owner of 60.6 percent of Feroelektro will now be the BiH entity Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Feroelektro was the fourth strongest trading company in the former Yugoslavia.

- We have no one else to turn to, because after the court ruling, we knew that Stanić's lawyers would manipulate the Assembly and buy additional time - stated Smajić.

Incidentally, by the sales contract, Stanić committed to investing nearly 12 million euros in the company within three years and employing 200 more workers. However, the opposite happened.

The number of workers decreased from 167 at the time to 57, who have not received their salaries for almost two years.

The privatization audit, which began four years ago, found that Stanić had fulfilled only two percent of the contracted obligations. Furthermore, Feroelektro's assets, valued at over 300 million euros, were illegally used as collateral for obtaining loans.

In 2014, the Privatization Agency filed a criminal complaint against Goran Stanić, a group of individuals at Feroelektro d.d. Sarajevo, Stanić-Invest d.o.o. Kreševo, and related companies, with the Special Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the BiH Prosecutor's Office due to suspicion of organized crime, fraud, forgery of official documents, abuse of position and authority.