A small and poor country of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) sent a total of 18 people to the exotic Sharm el-Sheikh to “participate” in a radiocommunication conference (WRC-19). The departure of 18 members of the BiH delegation to Egypt spent 59,655 BAM of money of tax payets. The question is how justified it is.
The World Radiocommunication Conference WRC-19, from 28th October to 22nd November 2019, was attended by 16 representatives of the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) and two representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Since the BiH public is generally unaware of the conference and why it is important for as many as 18 people to travel from BiH to Sharm el-Sheikh, KLix.ba news portal contacted the CRA and the BiH Ministry of Communications and Transport seeking official information on the trip to Egypt.
RAK confirmed to the portal that they had sent 16 people to Sharm el-Sheikh and that the cost of official travel (expenses for air travel and accommodation) amounted to a total of 52,252.61 BAM.
The answer to the question of whether the members of the CRA BiH delegation participated in any panel, if they did not – why, and if so, to provide us with what they discussed exactly (for each member individually), Klix.ba portal did not receive. Additionally, the porta; asked the CRA if BiH had any official point or suggestion at the WRC-19 conference.
“First of all, it is important to clarify the type and structure of this event. The conference lasted four weeks, it is of a working character, and all representatives of the CRA BiH delegation actively participated in the work of the conference at which contacts are established. Consequently, the conference is not a type of individual panel presentation, but activities are carried out in working groups and bodies, ” the CRA said.
It remains unclear why then representatives of the BiH Ministry of Communications and Transport stated in the official trip report that “they were not panelists, because BiH had no proposals or official comments on other proposals.”