Fuad Kasumović


Fuad Kasumović is a Bosnian politician, economist and businessman. He is currently holding the office of Zenica City mayor.

Biography

He was born 1958 in Gornji Vakuf. After graduating from the Economics Faculty Sarajevo, he was employed at the Coal Mine "Gračanica" in his hometown, and soon became the CFO of this company. He worked at the mine until the Bosnian War began in 1992. During the war he was a member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and upon his graduation he obtained a job in the Ministry of Dedicated Production in the Government of the Republic of BiH. From 1990 to 2017, he was a member and functionary of the Party of Democratic Action. Subsequently, he participated in the founding of the Independent Bloc in September 2017 – whose president is Senad Šepić – and used to be its member until April 2019.
He began his political career in 1996 as Minister of Finance in the Central Bosnia Canton. Prior to the end of his term in the office, in July 1998, he was appointed Deputy Director of the Customs Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following his removal from office in 2001, he remained in the Customs Administration for two more years as a financial advisor. Following the establishment of the Indirect Taxation Authority in 2004, Kasumović was appointed Advisor to the Director for International Cooperation. He remained in this post throughout the judicial process until his termination in 2007. In the same year he was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance of BiH.
In 2010 he was a president of NK Čelik Zenica. Kasumović ran in the 2010 general election but did not win enough votes to enter the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. However, that year he received the trust for the second term of the Deputy Minister of Finance and Treasury. He was removed from office in October 2012 due to the SDA's departure from the ruling state-level coalition. In 2015–16 he was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Development Bank of the FBiH. In the 2016 local elections, he was elected Zenica City Mayor as an independent candidate.

Accusations

The Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton charged Kasumović with malpractice because he, as a director of the FBiH Customs Administration, signed a transfer order for 69,000 KM to the Tuzla customs office for material costs and lease of premises. However, the money was used to buy the flat of an officer of the Administration. After a five-year trial, Kasumović was acquitted. In 2008, the Central Election Commission submitted a report against Kasumović to the BiH Prosecutor's Office on suspicion that he did not report all assets in the 2007 property file. Kasumović told CIN reporters that no one had contacted him about the issue. Kasumović also said that he had not been contacted in connection with the allegations made against him by the FBiH Financial Police. In 2003, this police institution submitted a report to the SBK Prosecutor's Office, in which Kasumović was suspected of having paid himself and other officials of the FBiH Customs Administration financial compensation for a non-existent separate life.

Private life

He and his wife Mersija have one child. The family owns three business offices, including a gas station in Zenica of which price Kasumović holds over a half a million KM value.