The Republika Srpska Investment and Development Bank gave a 3 million KM loan to Teslić at the end of May. The municipality, run by the Alliance of Independent Social-Democrats (SNSD), got loan approval 20 days after submitting an application.
The speed of that approval contrasts with the experience of Foča and Pale which asked for loans five months ago and Istočno Novo (East New) Sarajevo four months. Opposition parties run those municipalities.
The bank’s Stockholder Assembly Credit Board — presided over by Prime Minister Milorad Dodik — told the three municipalities that the bank was looking into alternative sources of financing for their development projects. Last December, Foča and Pale asked for 2.7 million KM and 3 million KM respectively, while Istočno Novo Sarajevo asked for a 3 million KM loan in February.
According to records the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) collected, some 11 million KM were sitting unused in the bank’s Fund for the Development of Eastern Part of the RS in 2009, more than enough to cover loans to the three municipalities.
Earlier this month CIN published a story about the bank’s lending practices CIN reporters found that the municipalities run by SNSD and their coalition partners received IRB credits more easily than those run by the opposition parties
For example, Novi Grad municipality headed by SNSD received a loan last December, and this May applied for another one.
