Romeo Biokšić: While Aluminij struggled with debts, directors received high salaries

MOSTAR, (Patria) - The president of the Independent Trade Union of Aluminij Employees, Romeo Biokšić, stated today that Aluminij has had eight managements since 2010, and all of them operated at a loss.

Dnevni list reports that Biokšić criticized that no one was held accountable for this, even though directors received abnormally high salaries during that time, in a factory that was struggling with debts.

The director of Aluminij, Dražen Pandža, announced today that the Mostar-based factory will be shut down at the first minute on Saturday. He said that if some miracle happens in the meantime, it will be short-term. "We can only be sad and say that we have lost this company. From Saturday, this company will not operate and will cease to function," said Pandža.

He warned that Aluminij lacks raw materials, spare parts, and that the price of electricity has risen so high that they can no longer afford it. 

In recent years, Aluminij has been operating at a loss, and the company's total debt is almost 400 million marks, of which more than half is debt for consumed electricity.

Naša stranka (Our Party) stated today that HDZ BiH is responsible for the situation at Aluminij, which, according to Naša stranka, has been using the company as its own credit card for decades. 

A group of workers blocked the main road near Mostar today in response to the situation at Aluminij.

The session of the Supervisory Board of Aluminij d.d. Mostar ended on Wednesday afternoon without concrete conclusions, and the president of the Supervisory Board, Zdenko Klepić, told the portal Bljesak that he does not want to comment on the session or today's events. 

The media remind that although it was announced on Tuesday that Aluminij had sent letters stating its end on Saturday, only after today's press conference did Croatian officials, the Prime Minister of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and the Mayor of Mostar, call for the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to get involved in solving the problems with Aluminij.