FBiH Government Never Moved In: Čović's Godfather Gifted 3 Million KM!

The Service for Joint Affairs of the Bodies and Authorities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina informed the Federal Government today that Gospodarska banka d.d. Mostar – in liquidation submitted on July 29, 2016, a Decision of the liquidation manager, stating that the selected buyer of the office building in Mostar, the so-called “Glass Bank,” is the FBiH Government – Service for Joint Affairs of the Bodies and Authorities of the FBiH, and that the sale price is in accordance with the offered price of 5,990,000 KM, reports the Patria news agency.

The signatory of this purchase agreement will be, on behalf of the FBiH Government, Federal Prime Minister Fadil Novalić. However, in the information released to the public, Novalić and his ministers in the Government did not clarify whether this act effectively renounces the three million KM that the FBiH Government paid for the demolished Hotel Hercegovina back in 2007, which was supposed to be used for housing the Government in Mostar.

The demolished hotel, i.e., the land, was purchased from the well-known Mostar businessman Ante Vidačak, who is a godfather to Dragan Čović, the leader of the HDZ, and sources from Patria within the FBiH Government reveal that the most responsible for this purchase was Vjekoslav Bevanda, then Minister of Finance of the FBiH.

Vidačak does not have to return the three million marks to the Federal Government that he took during the sale of the former Hotel Hercegovina, even though the Government led by Nermin Nikšić (SDP) several years ago made a decision to terminate the purchase agreement for the Hotel “Hercegovina,” but that agreement could not be terminated.

The entire case ended up in the Prosecutor's Office and the police, but the investigation never moved from a dead point. It is evident that no work ever began on the site of the former hotel, which auditors also warned about in their reports.

- It is necessary for the FBiH Government, through competent institutions, to undertake activities to resolve the issue of investments made in the Hotel “Hercegovina” facility in Mostar and the JP Geodetski zavod BiH in Sarajevo, with the aim of protecting and more efficiently using public funds – stated the auditors in their 2010 Report.

In the following year, reports were also filed by Nikšić, but the current Government led by Novalić apparently will not continue the fight for that money, even though auditors repeatedly warned that the three million KM were effectively wasted, i.e., skillfully used by Vidačak.

- The FBiH Government undertook activities to resolve the housing of part of the federal institutions in Mostar and significant budget funds were engaged for the purchase of the devastated building of the Hotel “Hercegovina” in Mostar in the amount of 3,000,000 KM (2007). The FBiH Government and the Service for Joint Affairs of the Bodies and Authorities of the FBiH did not take adequate measures to complete the initiated activities for resolving the housing of federal institutions in the facilities in which the mentioned investments were made. This is of particular significance given the amount of funds paid for the housing of federal institutions – states the audit report.

And instead of the FBiH Government now being housed in its own building, for nine years it has been paying rent for premises at another location.

The latest move by the FBiH Government and the purchase of the “Glass Bank” building further burden the budget, and the “Glass Bank” building itself is uninhabitable, and according to an analysis by the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Mostar, it was determined that the building has poor statics and that in the event of an earthquake, the building cracks along all load-bearing beams.

In 2011, auditors established that the FBiH Government on May 25, 2011, adopted a Conclusion tasking the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Service for Joint Affairs, and the General Secretariat of the FBiH Government to initiate proceedings for the termination of the agreement concluded between Hotel Mostar d.o.o. Mostar as the seller and the FBiH Government as the buyer and the return of funds paid as the purchase price in the amount of 3,000,000 KM charged to the 2007 budget.