Šerif Isović: RS must pay Viaduct debt itself, not the state

(Patria) - Šerif Isović, former director of the Tax Administration of the Federation of BiH, commented on the debt of the BiH entity RS to the company "Viaduct" amounting to over 110 million KM.

We are publishing his reaction in full.

"These days we are exposed to various ideas about resolving the debt of the RS entity to the Slovenian company Viaduct. Some are called populist, others illegal, and for the third, they postpone the solution to the problem... All proposals are short-term, political, and also due to the current value of money, they clearly benefit the one who produced the debt and at the expense of the state. Prosecutions are not yet commenting, perhaps they are waiting for these two billion that are announced and talked about.

Given our state's structure and the way laws are written and adopted, it is logical that some phenomena, like this one, are not clearly regulated and foreseen by regulations, but it is illogical that in a "flood" of ideas, systemic solutions are not sought that, guided by the principles of conscience, honesty, and justice, will introduce rules so that those responsible bear responsibility and which will be a standard for future cases.

Why should an irresponsible obligation or expense of an entity pass through the State budget, because if so, the irresponsible will be even less responsible and will shift their inaction onto others... Therefore, the rules of the game should be that it does not concern the state budget and those who are innocent in this, but rather the one who irresponsibly incurred the obligation or expense. I think there are solutions for that, and one is contained in the Law on Payments to the Single Account (Official Gazette of BiH no. 55/04, 34/07, and 91/17).

Namely, according to Article 5 of the Law on Payments to the Single Account, the Indirect Taxation Authority is responsible for allocating collected revenues to revenue beneficiaries, and according to Article 11, Paragraph 3 of this Law, the portion of revenue calculated for an entity is paid to that entity after the entity settles all its obligations regarding the financing of international obligations.

This is not about the debt of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the allocation of funds for servicing foreign debt, but about a court ruling that concerns one entity, so that entity should bear its debt. Therefore, the Council of Ministers should oblige the Indirect Taxation Authority to, before allocating/transferring funds from the single account belonging to the Republika Srpska entity, allocate/pay directly to Viaduct according to the court ruling, and let the entity, not the State, sue. The option of the state paying and then suing is contrary to state interests and an amnesty from responsibility... Perhaps such a decision by the Council of Ministers would quickly prompt a reaction from the prosecution.

The RS entity should be advised not to reduce everything immediately and to possibly pay the debt in installments by agreement with Viaduct, provided that they bear default interest and other costs," Isović stated.