Almost all Bosnian dailies on Friday reported that ministers from the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBiH) had walked out a session of the entity's government held in Mostar on Thursday.
Their move was prompted by the decision of some ministers from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and all ministers from the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to refuse a bill on changes to the entity's law on privatisation.
The bill, drafted by Industry Minister Izet Zigic of the SBiH, would open the process of revision of privatisation of some profitable state-owned companies.
This refers primarily to the Sarajevo Brewery, the Mostar Aluminium Factory, and the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory.
The bill would ban companies which are partially or exclusively owned by the state, regardless of whether they are registered in Bosnia or abroad, from participating in the privatisation process in the country.
This was a direct attempt to prevent "Croatia osiguranje" from bidding for the purchase of "Sarajevo osiguranje" and T-HT from trying to gradually become the owner of the third GSM licence in Bosnia through a complicated process of transferring its share in Eronet to HT Mostar.
Zigic's draft was supported by the entity's prime minister Ahmet Hadzipasic, a member of the SDA, while Hadzipasic's party colleagues Nedzad Brankovic and Zijad Pasic were against.
Trade Minister Maid Ljubovic told the "Oslobodjenje" daily that the SBiH ministers had walked out of the session because they believed that the bill was good and protected state interests.
They cannot understand why Bosnia-Herzegovina should allow foreign state-owned companies to buy its companies, which they believe only leads to new property nationalisation.
Oslobodjenje claims that the SBiH is particularly dissatisfied with the recent attempt to "give the Bosnian telecommunications sector to HT Zagreb", alluding to T-HT's offer to continue sharing with the entity, for a certain period of time, profit from mobile telephony, after which it would become the sole owner of HT Mostar and its profit.
It is an open secret that ministers from the SBiH consider Mobilkom Austria's offer better because it offers fresh capital under more favourable conditions.
The entity's deputy prime minister and finance minister, Dragan Vrankic of the HDZ, said that the ministers from the SBiH had tried to deceive their colleagues by making last-minute changes to the previously agreed text of the bill to expand privatisation restrictions.