Houses, apartments, expensive cars, high figures on savings accounts – that’s how officials in Tuzla Canton live. This information is available in the Register of Assets of Public Office Holders of the Tuzla Canton published by the Office for the Fight Against Corruption. Asset data can now be seen by everyone, including ordinary citizens and pensioners, who are particularly hurt by the large gap between their income and that of officials.
“Pensioners live a container life, whether their children give them what they throw away, or they look for it in containers,” says Vehid Jahić, president of the TK Pensioners’ Party.
This is the simplest description of the life of a pensioner, Jahić tells us, who testifies to the fact that his fellow citizens are counting the days until retirement, which, when it comes, is not enough even for basic living expenses. On the other hand, while pensioners count the days, officials count real estate and money. And everyone is aware of that.
“We have relatively the most expensive and most numerous government. They only count their income in the statistics as salary, and they have 14 benefits. “This is a more severe exploitation of the poor than in the slave society,” claims Jahić.
In the Tuzla Canton, for now, 884 declarations of property and gifts of public office holders and 1,405 declarations of property and gifts for close relatives have been recorded. However, this is not a final number, because not everyone fulfilled the legal obligation to declare property.
“What is most controversial at this moment are the initial submissions – that is, those public office holders who were in office on January 5, 2022. were obliged to submit that information within 60 days, and they are the ones who are the most disputed at this moment”, points out Muamer Šljivić, Secretary of the Office for Combating Corruption of the TK.
A fine of 10,000 marks is provided for not declaring assets, but it is not yet known if and when those who committed the offense will be punished. It is only known that the Office for the Fight against Corruption will start property control and enforcement of misdemeanor provisions from September.
“The control procedure is regulated by the Government’s decree and it foresees at least 200 holders of public offices during one year. Given that we are starting on September 1, of course it will not be about that number”, adds Šljivić.
However, it is important to start checks and enable transparency so that citizens know who they are leading, how they live, and ultimately, from what money they are spreading their wealth.
Electing new officials no longer makes sense, according to the citizens, because the changes would only mean new people with the same goals in which the citizens are not a priority. If they had anything, they had hope for change, but even that is fading day by day.
