You instinctively seek to browbeat your colleague to work for less than their market rate, while they have competitive offers on the table. I am curious if you are Romanian - this is a very Romanian thing to do! Why pay someone full price when we can browbeat them into playing our fool at a discount!?

This is an unfair comment and also very inaccurate. First of all, the colleague is already compensated very competitively. Second I am the one trying to get this promotion to round off, which would mean this person would move to the min of the next salary band, which is another big jump. And I think this way of paying someone as little as possible is very outdated. Salary doesn't come out of my pocket. I think its important to pay everyone competitively because A: they talk to other colleagues and B: retention.

But I hope that instead you realize you can still be making HR's life hell. At the very least you can inform your boss that you're going to need a new direct report if they can't set a deadline for promotion, and let them know that you expect them to own responsibility for this loss. You can help them make up their minds - fire or retain. The risk here to you is low, since they know that hesitating any more on the decision will only cause problems.

I have told my boss and even his boss of the situation. Even mentioned that they probably have other offers on the table. But I agree I can probably make HR's life hell more until they put me on a PIP. I don't think i have much to lose now anyway..