FBiH Government Must Resist: Mirsad Kukić - A Budgetary Monster More Dangerous Than the Loch Ness Monster

By Rasim Belko

---

Scientists recently determined that there is no monster in the world-famous Loch Ness. They say it's an unnaturally large eel.

In a significantly smaller pool, named Tuzla, the media have been proving for years that there is a 'beast' capable of draining capital from the Banovići Mine, as well as other companies it gets its hands on.

The budgetary 'monster', ready to drain every mark of public money, is called Mirsad Kukić. That he is the biggest diver in the Tuzla pool and that everyone fears him was admitted last year by the team of experts who created him, better known as SDA. Kuko was eliminated from the laboratory located at Mehmeda Spahe street number 14.

However, Mirsad Kukić has long been capable of independent diving through budgetary wilderness. He quickly reacted and formed his own laboratory. Because without a good laboratory, there is no good product. The laboratory with the acronym PDA, or Democratic Activity Movement, feeds on the output of the Banovići Coal Mine and also 'nicks' a bit from the Tuzla Thermal Power Plant and other companies in this canton. It is important that they are state-owned, and Kukić will find a way.

The Federation Government, also led by an SDA cadre, Fadil Novalić, has experienced Mirsad Kukić's capacity for trickery, to whom not so long ago, prominent SDA members sang "Mirso Kuko, people love you".

The temperature in this small BiH town rose after the FBiH Government announced that the Assembly of RMU Banovići would be held, where a new Supervisory Board would be elected. The mandate of the old one, controlled by Kukić, had expired.

Kuko, whom people love, has grown so strong that he has placed Prime Minister Novalić and his former party associate Safet Softić on the list of persona non grata. Mirso took inspiration from HDZ and fashionably began to turn Banovići into a mini-state, not to say an entity.

And then, the Municipal Council of Banovići, which had placed Novalić and Softić among the undesirable, also thought it was a state in the formal-legal sense. They took it upon themselves to demand accountability from the entity government regarding the status of the project for the construction of a thermal power plant in Banovići, block 1-350 MW.

In this country, no one is surprised by miracles anymore. Every miracle has been established since the SDA-HDZ-SNSD tricolor has been leading us.

It is therefore not surprising that company assemblies are secured by police officers. The police security for the Assembly of RMU Banovići was provided by a decision of the Government of Tuzla Canton, at the request of the FBiH Government.

Police officers and inspectors secured the streets of Banovići and the Workers' Hall building, where the new Supervisory Board of RMU Banovići was to be elected.

However, the old board, whose members' mandates have expired, will continue to oversee the work of the Banovići mine. Kukić once again proved that he is the boss in Banovići. The Assembly of RMU Banovići was canceled because the members of the Voting Committee, elected by the old Supervisory Board, did not attend the sessions. They cited illness and traffic accidents as reasons.

Today's events in the city of green roofs are just one piece of evidence of the 'eel' that the SDA laboratory has developed.

Inspections and audits, the Government and Parliament are unable to establish authority in Banovići. They pray to Kuko, they listen to him and love him. And Kuko, in the shade of his budgetary entity, makes deals and feeds those who protect him.

Inspectors have discovered too many irregularities in the Banovići mine for the state, no matter how disorganized, to ignore the reports.

Mirsad Kukić's fear and blackmail rule the Tuzla Canton, and especially Banovići. Therefore, the FBiH Government must not yield to any pressure. This may be the last chance to take back what he has embraced from Kukić's hands and return it to the state. Regardless of the price.

And there is no doubt that there will be resistance. The Banovići Trade Union, the Municipal Council, the former Supervisory Board, directors, and some workers. They are all on the same interest list.

Therefore, the FBiH Government, even with the engagement of special units, will have to return Banovići within the framework of the rule of law. Otherwise, the monster from the Tuzla pool can grow, and that pool can become too small for it. The eel from Banovići has long become dangerous, it is time to free the citizens of Tuzla Canton from the fear of a monster as black as Banovići coal.