SARAJEVO, June 11 (Hina) - The international High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, insists on the resignation of the Croat-Muslim Federal Finance Minister and the Bosnian Serb entity's Finance Minister owing to
their moral responsibility for faults of the staff in their ministries, Ashdown's spokesman Julian Braithwaite said on Tuesday.
SARAJEVO, June 11 (Hina) - The international High Representative to
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, insists on the resignation of
the Croat-Muslim Federal Finance Minister and the Bosnian Serb
entity's Finance Minister owing to their moral responsibility for
faults of the staff in their ministries, Ashdown's spokesman Julian
Braithwaite said on Tuesday. #L#
This is not the matter of the relations towards concrete persons,
but it is about the establishment of standards which should be
respected, the spokesman said at a news conference commenting on
the latest announcements that the ministers Nikola Grabovac of the
Federation and Milenko Vracar of the Republic of Srpska must step
down owing scandals about corruption and wrongdoing in customs
services.
On Monday, Ashdown said in an interview broadcast by television
houses in both entities that he could not imagine that it might
happen in a democratic country that the finance minister does not
quit after a financial scandal.
Grabovac is accused for being partly responsible for the illegal
refund of the tariffs after a firm presented false papers about its
fulfilment of financial obligations. The federal budget was harmed
in the scandal.
Milenko Vracar, the finance minister in the other entity, is held
responsible for the actions of an organised group of customs
officers who were involved in racketeering and who embezzled at
least 30 million German marks from the entity's budget.
Commenting on Lord Ashdown's latest statements, Nikola Grabovac
said he would not bent under pressure and resign as he was not
responsible for failures of other persons.
Grabovac believes he is a victim of a frame-up made up by his deputy
in the ministry, Sefika Hafizovic, and the chief federal financial
inspector, Zufer Dervisevic.
"The case dates back to 1997 and I have been the minister for only
one year," the federal finance minister said.
Besides, four billion dollars flowed in Bosnia in the last five
years. Where is the money? I ask for an investigation in it, he
added.
The point is not whether ministers are personally involved in
corruption. It is about the political responsibility. If Bosnia
wants to become a part of Europe, it must apply European standards,
Ashdown's spokesman Braithwaite said in a response to Grabovac's
statement.
No reaction has so far arrived from the Bosnian Serb entity in
relation to the insistence on the replacements.
(hina) ms