The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bisera Turkovic, spoke about the report of the Audit Office of BiH, saying that it confirmed that all funds were spent as intended and in accordance with the law.
Turkovic said that point 1 of the report states that “the financial reports of the Ministry show truthfully and fairly, in all material aspects, the financial condition of assets, liabilities and sources of funds as of December 31, 2021, and the execution of the budget for the year ending on that date, in accordance with the accepted financial reporting framework.”
Point 2 of the report clearly states “In our opinion, the activities, financial transactions and information of the Ministry for the year 2021 are consistent, in all material aspects, with the laws and other regulations defined as criteria for the given audit.”
“In the past period, as the audit report clearly confirms, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina achieved significant savings, compared to previous years, on official travel items and especially on the representation item, where significantly less money was spent compared to the plan and earlier years. (the lowest consumption since 2013) All transactions were carried out transparently, purposefully, justified and in accordance with the law,” said Turkovic.
She added that nowhere in the audit report is the wording exceeding the limit per business card.
“The limit of 20,000 BAM mentioned in the report, and in accordance with the Decision from 2007, is the monthly limit per business card, which was approved by the Ministry of Finance. The total annual limit is 240,000 BAM, and the total was last year through the business card used by the minister , deputy and secretary, 43,094 BAM were spent, which is lower than 20 percent of the planned funds for consumption,” she states.
She pointed out that last year the costs of representation at the headquarters of the Ministry amounted to 80,979 BAM (numerous delegations), and in all embassies and consulates of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with hundreds of employees around the world, 319,802 BAM were spent.
“According to the decision of the BiH Council of Ministers, a saving of almost 20 percent was achieved from the amount provided for the national team. Excluding the year 2020, this is the lowest spending on this item in the last 13 years,” emphasized Turkovic.
She emphasized that during her mandate, not a single new vehicle was purchased for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, embassies or consulates.
“At the same time, significant results were achieved on the international scene, numerous bilateral and multilateral meetings were held around the world,” concludes Turkovic.
