Parliamentarians of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) charge heavily for their “idleness”. For the past four years, they have rewarded themselves with salary increases. Is the current convocation of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH) the worst so far? This assesment of the analysts and parliamentarians themselves is proven by the official data on the number of sessions held, the materials they considered and the laws adopted. What kind of message did they send to the citizens of BiH?
From 2018 until today, only 31 sessions of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament were held. Three times less than the previous convocations. And at those sessions, as well as at the extraordinary ones, there are mostly only useless discussions, with a few proposed laws that in most cases would ultimately be overturned. The mandate of parliamentarians was marked by blockades, for which, as expected, the parties of the ruling coalition accuse each other.
”The mandate period 2018/2022 will be remembered for the blockade, attempted obstructions, and the attempt to hold as few sessions as possible, especially those that would be significant for the interest of the citizens of BiH and the state. We had a blockade on the scene by the SNSD, very often the silence of the HDZ, which did not want to react in a more adequate way, to try to overcome that blockade,” stated Adil Osmanovic, head of the SDA Caucus in House of Representatives of the PABiH.
”I do not dare to say that it is the worst convocation, because every time I said it, an even worse one came. The very fact that several of us delegates individually proposed more laws than the Council of Ministers tells you about the quality of the work of both the executive and legislative authorities,” Sasa Magazinovic said, head of the SDP Caucus in the House of Representatives of the PABiH.
”You have the action of the opposition, which has not only assumed the role of the proposer of the law, something that is certainly part of the mandate of the elected delegates in the PABiH, so they are also the authorized proposers of the law, and they jumped in, in this case, in the absence of any activity by the Council of Ministers. Inefficiency should be attributed to this parliamentary majority, to the people sitting there in front of them,” political analyst Adnan Huskic points out.
We witnessed stormy discussions, but not the final adoption of important legal solutions. Like those that are important for the European path of BiH. Laws on preventing conflicts of interest, public procurement, and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) will wait for the next mandate. They rewarded themselves for not working with increased incomes.
”What is particularly worrisome are the reports on the excessive spending of official cars, the expensive overnight stays of parliamentarians, especially abroad, where almost as a rule the most expensive hotels, the most expensive lounges are chosen, when it comes to lunches, restaurants, there is also no expense spared. Of course, the competent audits warned about it much earlier, however, neither the recommendations of those competent authorities nor civil society had any influence on the decision-makers who, in the end, decide for themselves how they will behave,” emphasizes Damjan Ozegovic from Transparency International BiH (TIBiH).
The average salary of BiH parliamentarians is about five thousand BAM. Enough reason for a great fight for a position for which, as it turned out, no special qualifications are needed in our country, BHRT writes.
E.Dz.
