SARAJEVO, Jan 11 (Hina) - The Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) in Bosnia-Herzegovina has initiated proceedings to award Mostar's GSM operator "Eronet" a permanent mobile telephony licence, but the decision has caused a torrent
of reactions in the authorities of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
SARAJEVO, Jan 11 (Hina) - The Communications Regulatory Agency
(CRA) in Bosnia-Herzegovina has initiated proceedings to award
Mostar's GSM operator "Eronet" a permanent mobile telephony
licence, but the decision has caused a torrent of reactions in the
authorities of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. #L#
The CRA initiated the procedure of awarding the licence to Eronet as
the country's third GSM operator after the municipality of Grude
earlier this week bought 4.48 percent of the company's shares from
Hercegovacka Bank, which is temporarily managed by a board of
international representatives.
The sale of the shares, which had been acquired under unclear
circumstances by three companies from Herzegovina, has granted
Eronet the status of a public company partially owned by the state.
As such, the company has the right to be awarded the licence free of
charge, which otherwise would cost it hundreds of thousands of
euros.
Free GSM licences were previously awarded to Sarajevo's BH Telekom
and Telekom Srpske from Banja Luka under the same conditions.
The Croatian Telecommunications (HT) company from Mostar claims
that it is the owner of the controversial shares, which had been
sold to companies connected with the leadership of the Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and has claimed them
back.
The company has described the decision of the temporary manager of
Hercegovacka Bank, Tobby Robinson, to sell the shares to Grude
municipality as an international conspiracy to plunder Bosnia-
Herzegovina and prepare the national market for the arrival of
powerful Deutsche Telekom. As the majority owner of Croatian
Telecom from Zagreb, Deutsche Telekom also controls 49% of Eronet's
shares.
The Privatisation Agency of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina
stated on Friday that previous inspections revealed that the
ownership of the 4.48% of Eronet's shares had been illegally
transferred from the then Croatian Post and Telecommunications
(HPT) in Mostar (later divided into separate segments,
Telecommunications and Post) and Herzegovacka Bank to the three
Mostar companies.
It was ordered at the time that the shares be returned to HPT Mostar,
but this was never done, the Agency stated.
Federation Transport and Communications Minister Besim Mehmedic
called a special news conference to announce that the federal
financial police would investigate the circumstances under which
the shares were sold to Grude municipality.
Mehmedic has information that the shares were sold for some 800,000
convertible marks (400,000 euros) and that Hercegovacka Bank had
sold them to pay some of its debts to the municipality.
The federal authorities claim that a municipality cannot buy
company shares and that this can be done only by the state, in this
case the Federation.
Mehmedic explicitly confirmed suspicions that the German
telecommunications company was behind the affair.
The federal government has decided to propose discontinuing the
privatisation of not only Eronet but HT Mostar and BH Telekom from
Sarajevo as well, until it is established if the Federation is the
legal owner of Eronet's shares.
It is also to be investigated under which circumstances HT Zagreb
bought 49% of Eronet's shares.
The chairman of the country's Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic,
said he would also suggest that the CRA discontinue the issuing of
the licence to Eronet until the establishment of the country's new
authorities was completed.
(hina) rml