The Privatization Agency of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) could not provide documents that would justify the 2012 reimbursement of its Board of Directors to the tune of little less 190,000 KM according to an audit report.
In the same year, without a contract it also paid fees worth 31,226 KM to the members of the Agency’s Supervisory Board.
During Tuesday’s public hearing before the members of the FBiH Parliament’s Audit Committee, the Agency’s representative said that it was true that the boards’ members had no contracts with the Agency, yet they were reimbursed every month without fail.
She explained that the president and the members of the Board of Directors received fees on par with two average salaries in the Federation and that this was in line with the Law on Salaries and Other Material Rights of the Board Members on FBiH Government Agencies and Public Companies in Majority State Ownership.
The auditors said that they could not confirm if the Agency worked in line with the law, because it failed to conclude contracts with the members of both boards pending approval of the FBiH Prime Minister.
According to the 2012 privatization agenda, the Agency was supposed to sell 11 major companies and net around 420 million KM.
The Agency has only sold 123,278 shares of a Sarajevo-based joint-stock company UNIS netting 616,390 KM, instead of more than 2,1 million share that made 51 percent of the company’s capital.
During a voucher privatization, the Agency sold a building called Kapija III owned by Zenica Steel Mill for 241,000 KM.
The revenue from the sale of this company was not even sufficient to cover for the salaries and fees of the Agency’s employees which amounted to around 1.75 million KM.
Despite a decrease in salaries in 2012, an average monthly salary paid by the Agency amounted to 2,461 KM according to the audit report.
The Center for Investigative Reporting has published several stories about high salaries and fees of the members of government agencies that have little to show for the work they do.
