CVIJANOVIĆ: ANYONE ASKING WHERE MONEY PAID TO VIADUCT WENT SHOULD TURN TO SCHMIDT AND HASANOVIĆ

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, MAY 18 /SRNA/ – The Serb BiH Presidency member Željka Cvijanović told SRNA that Republika Srpska did not pay the debt to Viaduct, but rather Christian Schmidt and Deputy Finance Minister in the Council of Ministers Muhamed Hasanović did.

"In addition to interfering in political and judicial matters, Schmidt took it upon himself to illegally play with budgets and taxpayers' money," Cvijanović stressed. Asked to comment on reports by Slovenian media claiming that the money BiH paid to Viaduct had "disappeared" after the company changed ownership, Cvijanović told SRNA that those now speculating about the money paid to Viaduct are forgetting that the Republika Srpska Government had refused to make any payment because it never received confirmation of the account's validity. "Of course, that was no obstacle for Schmidt and his financial executor, Muhamed Hasanović, to carry out the payment," Cvijanović said. Unlike those who had obtained the concession but could not even pay for office expenses and tax obligations, the Republika Srpska Power Industry succeeded in building a new energy facility on the Vrbas River, which was the first undertaking of that kind in decades after the war. "However, it is interesting that those who attacked the Republika Srpska institutions for not settling obligations under the arbitration dispute or the alleged settlement have now found it appropriate to ask where the money ended up, the payment of which was ordered by Christian Schmidt. Therefore, anyone asking where the money ended up should address Schmidt and Hasanović," Cvijanović said.