Tegeltija is a Serb and has attended schools in his native Mrkonjić Grad and then moved to Sarajevo, where in 1986 he graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Sarajevo. He is married and has two children. He worked at the Bosanski Brod oil refinery, the Tax Administration and the Customs Administration of Republika Srpska as adviser to the director. In addition, he was a lecturer at the RS Customs Administration training centre, and member of the Commission for the implementation of the BiH customs policy.
Political career
Tegeltija has been a member of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats since 1998. He was first elected in 2000 in the town council of Mrkonjić Grad as well as a member of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska and later served as chairman of the State Commission for the BiH borders. He was elected mayor of Mrkonjić Grad in 2004 and confirmed in 2008, serving until 2010. At the 2006 general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tegeltija was the head of the party's election headquarters. Albeit a close ally of Milorad Dodik, Tegeltija has never engaged in nationalistic rhetoric, nor been embroiled in major scandals. In 2006, he completed his postgraduate studies and in 2008 gained the title of Doctor of Economic Sciences from Alpha BK University in Belgrade. Since 2009 he worked as senior assistance and then assistant professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Business Management, University of Banja Luka, teaching public finance and monetary economics.
Tegeltija was appointed Minister of Finance of the Republika Srpska entity on 29 December 2010 in the government of Aleksandar Džombić, and was later confirmed in the post in the first and second cabinet of Željka Cvijanović in 2013 and 2014. He was re-elected at the entity parliament at the 2018 general elections. During his ministerial tenure, three banks failed in Republika Srpska, including Bobar Banka and Balkan Investment Bank. Tegeltija's government increased its capital in the latter by 15 million euro in 2013, becoming majority owner of it. The bank changed name in Bank of Srpska, but was liquidated in 2016, with a loss estimated at 60 million euro in public and private deposits. The RS Banking Agency, under the jurisdiction of Tegeltija's entity ministry of Finance, was blamed for lack of supervision on the banking sector. The RS entity Supreme Court ruled in July 2019 that the Agency had illegally hid data on banking operation and that the bankruptcies could have been prevented. In 2017, the RS entity Public Sector Audit Office contested the official estimates of public deficit, claiming it was up to 87.5 million euros, not 22.5 million as reported by Tegeltija's ministry. The audit office also found that the government had taken loans on behalf of funds and public institutions without their knowledge. The Auditor-General Dusko Snjegota resigned soon after, and Jovo Radukić, a former assistant to Tegeltija was appointed in his stead. The move was widely denounced as a clear case of political pressure on independent institutions.
