Government holds deposited funds in banks, then takes unfavorable loans from the same banks

DF MP in the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament Mahir Mešalić requested from the Federal Government to disclose data on how much state-owned companies, such as BH Telecom and Elektroprivreda BiH, have time deposits in commercial banks in FBiH, and with which banks the time deposits of other government enterprises are held and how much they are, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

According to unconfirmed information, more than 700 million KM of state-owned companies' money is deposited in accounts with commercial banks in the Federation. At the same time, the Federal Government announces taking out 200 million KM in commercial loans to cover the deficit in the federal budget.

The Government of the Federation has borrowed from commercial banks before. However, no one has ever investigated the conditions under which this borrowing is carried out. Namely, commercial banks offer discounts to ordinary clients on loans if they are their depositors. Are these loans favorable, and to what extent, especially since the Government of the Federation, as the owner of state-owned enterprises, is the largest depositor in these banks?

The opposition has been demanding for days that the Government disclose the interest rates on these government borrowings from commercial banks, as well as other benefits, if any.

So far, it has been suspected that commercial banks have some "personal relationships" with the directors of certain state-owned companies, who keep their time deposits there, and take out loans under not-so-favorable conditions. They justified this by saying that it was difficult for them to break the time deposits, which analysts assess as a groundless deception, writes Patria.