The Governor Leaves, The Disease Remains

Since Tuesday, no daily newspaper has given front page importance to the letter of resignation submitted by the man in charge of the most important financial institution in the country, and therefore the economy. The papers aren't wrong, they are a reflection of the importance of the Central Bank and its Governor.

The National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBJ) is without a Governor since Monday (11.10.1993). The Assembly's public relations office announced on Monday that Borislav Atanackovic had submitted his letter of resignation, informing the Presidents of both Assembly Chambers that he was resigning from the post of NBJ Governor, and cited health reasons. Since Friday the Central Bank has not issued any information on who would be acting Governor, until the election of the new Governor. The Federal Assembly has not said when the deputies will know the name or names of the candidates for the post. According to regulations, the NBJ Governor is proposed by the federal head of state, and is elected by both Chambers for a term of office lasting five years. Atanackovic did not manage to put together three months as Governor (he was elected on July 16 this year), while his predecessor Vuk Ognjenovic currently Federal Finance Minister, stayed in office less than a year.

The pubic has not been told if Atanackovic had specified the ``health reasons'' given in his resignation, but it is a fact that he has been under medical supervision since early September. The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) spokesman denied any links between the Radicals' demand for the Governor's dismissal, adding that Atanackovic ``had been seriously ill for some time.'' Before making an official demand for Atanackovic's dismissal, Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Seselj claimed in the Assembly that the Socialists had chosen a man who was a chronic alcoholic and epileptic. Atanackovic was elected NBJ Governor thanks to Socialist and Radical votes. Doctors claim that none of the above mentioned illnesses are acquired in such a short time, certainly not in the manner in which SPS and SRS officials are presenting it.

Atanackovic really is a professional banker. He learned the trade from the bottom and with time earned the reputation of a man who knew his job. VREME will neither confirm nor deny Atanackovic's illnesses as diagnosed in the Assembly, but we will carry the story of those who know the now former Governor, and of his dual personality: his intimate disagreement with what he had been doing for the past five-six years. The latest proof of this duality was published in VREME some twenty-odd days ago.

The matter pertains to unofficial stories from the NBJ, according to which Atanackovic really did feel ill when the list of members of the Governor's Board was submitted for his signature. The list is very different from the one he would have liked.

Atanackovic's ``illness'' dates from the time when headed Beobanka and Slobodan Milosevic was chief of the system's main offices. A close friendship developed, with one man going on to lead the National Bank of Serbia and the other the Republic of Serbia. The third member of the ``monetary team'' was Jovan Zebic, at the time Finance Minister in the Serbian government. That period, i.e. the new authority's first years in power, will be best remembered for the incursion into Yugoslavia's payments system and hijacking of 1.5 to three billion US dollars (Ljubljana and Zagreb mentioned the latter number, more for their domestic needs, so that 1.5 billion is the more likely sum).

This job threw Atanackovic off line, making him dependent of his accomplice and later on sedatives which helped alleviate the initial subjugation. This was later followed with the rendering of small services such as: the spiriting away of all funds, the parallel, grey issue of money, silence at the appearance of big and small shady private banks such as ``Dafiment Bank'' and ``Jugoskandik'' (owned by Ms. Dafina Milanovic and Jezdimir Vasiljevic respectively), and helping some of them. Atanackovic said at the time that the National Bank of Serbia had helped ``Dafiment Bank'' more than he was at liberty to say publicly. This in fact, was aid aimed at helping the ruling clique cover up its interests, while at the same time, stepping up rumors on who had profited from doing business with ``Dafiment'' and to what extent.

In order to avoid confusion, it must be said that Atanackovic's role and fate in the matter do not have anything to do with the arguments used by those who justify private morals and an unfortunate fate with public immorality. The issue concerns only one aspect of the ruling regime, in fact its sickness. To be truthful, this sickness isn't all that new. The manipulation of people and the manipulation of the national currency existed in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Buying the people's goodwill with money without cover during the Seventies, a period many mention today with nostalgia, forgetting that the diverting of foreign grants and credit for personal consumption came to an end at the start of the Eighties, when these grants had to be returned, and when Yugoslavia was proclaimed incapable of returning its foreign debts.

Because of this, the current episode with the former NBJ Governor would not be complete without mentioning here the only NBJ Governor, who, when he realized that he couldn't lead the Central Bank according to his conscience and professional ethics, decided to resign. The man in question was Nikola Miljanic, one of the rare officials to resign for such reasons.

Just as the earlier policy aimed at devaluing the dinar, i.e. of labor and know-how cannot justify Atanackovic, neither can those decades serve as an excuse for the man giving Atanackovic his orders. The matter concerns a continuity, which, it is to be hoped, has found its final expression in the current regime. The end has been reached, and those in power have no right to complain if they don't like it.

In other words, the diagnosis determines the therapy. If Atanackovic is leaving for ``reasons of health,'' then it is only he who is leaving, and the disease remains. If the diagnosis were to read ``diseased dinar,'' then Atanackovic could be the main therapist, judging by awards received from expert circles. The problem lies in the fact that the healing of the dinar would entail the chasing away of all quasi-bankers, regardless of the posts they may hold today. Considering that the balance of forces is different, it would be safe to bet that the new Governor will be a man from one of the banks which ``deal'' most for the state, or the department for the control of payments, considering it has had daily information of what the Serbian authorities have been doing in the past few years and of what they are doing right now.