The government of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH) has allocated 2 million KM from current reserves to pay the money Ploče-based Oil Terminal of FBiH (NTF) owes to a creditor that almost forced the terminals into bankruptcy.
Ibrahim Bećirbegović, a director general of the Federation Terminals, said that this money would be used to pay debts owed to Deltagrip, a British crude oil and products trading company.
The Terminals took a 3.5 million KM loan from Deltagrip in 2006 but cancelled the contract before the money was repaid. At Deltagrip’s request, a Commercial Court in Dubrovnik froze the company’s accounts last week and ruled that a review of conditions for initiating bankruptcy proceedings should be conducted. In its court petition Deltagrip stated that the company had defaulted on its 2.4 million KM of obligations because of indebtedness.
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A day after the Dubrovnik court decision, the FBiH government paid 1.3 million KM to NTF’s account keeping it in operation.
The government also agreed that this amount, as well as 4.7 million KM which it paid last year in the name of the Terminals’ defaults, should be entered in the books as the capital of the Ploče firm.
Bećirbegović explained to a reporter from the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) that the 6 million KM, represents the total the FBiH government already gave the Terminals in 2009 and 2010 in order to prevent the company from going into receivership.
The current management, FBiH financial police and Croatian prosecutors have accused former director Josip Tomić of ruining the company by signing a series of money-losing deals including contracts with Deltagrip. FBiH financial police have also accused Tomić of paying himself more than 120,000 KM per year, stealing records and stamps from the company, misuse of office and other charges. Recently, the Municipal Court of Metković in Croatia confirmed the prosecutor’s charges against he former general manager.
