Parties can only get lunch and promotional mobile phones from us!

"BH Telecom" is no one's golden goose. All parties and politicians can get from us is, possibly, a lunch for representation and a mobile phone from a promotional offer, said in an open and exclusive interview for the BiH news agency Patria (NAP) Nedžad Rešidbegović, the general director of this state-owned company.

Rešidbegović is in the last year of his mandate, but he emphasizes that he leaves behind a successful company that has fought off great pressures from unfair competition, and has paid more than 1.2 billion marks to the FBiH budget solely from profit!

- The global trend in the world is such that telecommunications have reached their maximum. The revenue of such companies is starting to decline for various reasons, you now have Viber, Skype, none of that can be charged for. And, secondly, there is fierce competition due to market liberalization in BiH. You have 120 companies offering everything available on the telecommunications market. Despite this, we have an increase in the number of users in four categories, and a decrease only in fixed-line telephony. And that is mainly due to the RTV tax – says Rešidbegović.

The director of "BH Telecom" points out that there are certain political pressures, but he rejects the claims of individuals that individuals and parties use this company as an ATM.

- Come on, you try to come to this ATM and take money. How will you be able to? There are so many controls here that it is impossible for anything to happen unnoticed. You have internal audits, external audits, federal audits, inspections, the Financial Police, and our people who ensure there are no abuses. They say we have hidden 500 million KM in banks. I ask you, can you hide one mark in a bank, let alone a million. Can you make a payment greater than 10,000 KM without the police knowing about it? These are such absurdities, I don't know who they are selling that fog to – says Rešidbegović.

When asked if there is a possibility of fraud with tenders and investments, and connections with political parties, Rešidbegović answers that there are protection mechanisms in place against any abuses in that regard.

- Hypothetically, imagine that someone from a party asked for money for some black fund. How could I do that even if I wanted to? All I can do is take him to lunch and give him a mobile phone from a promotional offer. That's all any party or politician can get from "BH Telecom". Do you think that if we were operating as they say, we could distribute 110 million KM in dividends every year? We wouldn't have this result if that were the case. We compare ourselves to a private company that has a much better market position. Of course, there are political pressures, but it is up to us to work in the interest of the company – says Rešidbegović.