The Audit Office of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) established that during the implementation of official trips in 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH did not apply the principle of rational and complete documentation of the purpose and intention of the use of public funds, and as one of the financially significant examples, the trip of the then minister Bisera Turkovic (SDA) to Bali was mentioned.
Only Minister Turkovic traveled to the 15th Democratic Forum, which according to the agenda lasted one day, but the trip lasted a total of seven days, for which 11.437 BAM was paid, according to the report of the Audit Office.
The report specifies that the total expenditures of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH for official trips in 2022 amounted to 1.468.910 BAM, which is 515.660 BAM or 54 percent more than the previous year.
The Audit Office of the Institutions of BiH pointed out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, despite many years of recommendations, makes travel plans just before the trip itself, when plane tickets and hotel accommodation are significantly higher, and that certain trips were attended by a larger number of people and that certain official trips lasted an unusually long time.
In addition to the official trip to Bali, the Audit Office singled out more financially significant trips in the report, such as trips to Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, as well as a trip to the United States (U.S.) for a meeting with the World Bank (WB) for 11 days, and France for 10 days.
The audit report states that only the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Bisera Turkovic) traveled to the Maldives on a bilateral visit, that the trip lasted seven days and that 14.933 BAM was spent for it, and that the plan and decision on the official trip were made two days before the trip, while the report on the trip was not submitted to the auditors.
Official trips are only one of the problems recorded by the audit, which is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Council of Ministers received the worst ratings from the auditors of the 28 institutions for which the audit report for 2022 was published.
The audit report for 2022 includes 46 recommendations, of which 11 refer to the audit of financial statements, while 38 recommendations were given due to established non-compliance of activities, financial transactions, and information with relevant laws and other regulations.
Three recommendations relate to both financial statements and compliance.
Out of the total number of recommendations given, 30 recommendations refer to irregularities, deficiencies, and weaknesses identified in previous reports, which were not eliminated in 2022, and accordingly, such recommendations were repeated in this report, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
