There is no money for pensioners. There is no for a number of other workers destroyed companies, unattached work experience, low incomes. And the fact is that the government in the Federation is telling the truth. There is no money. The deficit is greater than 536 million marks. Or more specifically, more than 736 million was spent in one year. This is what the auditors found, and we ask – where and into whose pockets did the money go?
The Government of the Federation entered the year 2023 with a surplus of 200 million BAM. However, they ended the year 2023 with a deficit of 536 million 377 thousand. This was shown by the report of the Institutional Audit Office in FBiH. From a surplus to a deficit of over half a billion marks, in just 12 months. The Audit Office further states that they cannot confirm that last year’s budget rebalancing was carried out on the basis of relevant indicators in accordance with the Law on Budgets, bearing in mind significant deviations in the realization of planned revenues and expenditures.
“The fact that income and receipts, as well as expenditures, were not planned on the basis of realistic input data, nor was their execution adequately monitored, is confirmed by the fact that revenues and receipts were realized less by 1,100,945,576 BAM, and expenditures and expenditures by 564,568 .459 BAM from the planned. In order to balance the FBiH budget, adequate measures were not taken in accordance with Articles 36 and 37 of the Law on Budgets in the FBiH, which resulted in a realized deficit in the amount of 536,377,117 BAM”.
And, it is clear, the deficit would have been even bigger if the year had not been entered with the aforementioned 200 million surplus. Bearing in mind that this money was also spent, we arrive at a figure of over 736 million BAM. The question arises – where is the money? From the Ministry of Finance justification through a number of reasons – and we single out some.
Absence of payment of income from end users due to inability to service obligations on the basis of loans by JP AC FBiH in the amount of 183 million BAM. The absence of the planned dividend from JP BH Telecom also affected the reduction of the income side in the amount of 35 million BAM.
Adopted Amendments to the Law on the Basics of Social Protection, Protection of Civilian Victims of War and Protection of Families with Children, which resulted in additional growth of the expenditure side and for the implementation of which it was necessary to secure an additional 67 million BAM.
“The audit finding clearly established that we have a deficit in the budget. It was clearly stated that we had a surplus at the beginning when the FBiH Government came in the new convocation. I think that anyone who is serious does not need to add anything special to that,” said Alma Kratina, a member of the FBiH Parliament.
When we add up these and other items presented by the minister, we arrive at a figure of almost 630 million BAM. Where is the rest and where is the difference lost, because 116 million is not small. The government and the opposition, as expected, have different views.
“Despite all your prepared frauds, due to falsely or unrealistically planned revenues, the Ministry of Finance settled all obligations planned in the budget, which related to the year 2023, within the legal deadline. For the first eight months of this year, a total of over 770 million BAM of already created debt was repaid, while at the same time the new debt did not exceed the amount of 342 million BAM”, said Aner Žuljević, a member of the FBiH Parliament.
Economists, on the other hand, explain that one of the reasons for the deficit is the disruption of the inflow and outflow of funds. One of the reasons is that budget debtors do not fulfill their obligations.
“These current data, which are being discussed now, are a factual recurrence of all past events. They take on a political connotation, although from an accounting point of view they reflect one image of one state”, says Željko Šain, a professor at the Faculty of Economics at UNSA.
The situation is such that, on the one hand, the Directorate for Indirect Taxation of BiH is constantly recording an increase in income from indirect taxes, which are again distributed to the entities and the Brčko District, and on the other hand, the government is going from loan to loan to cover budget holes. Why is that so?
“Each government tries to have as little social unrest as possible, and in this way, by satisfying budget users, it sometimes consciously goes against normal cash flows,” adds Professor Šain.
Finally, a reminder that during this year the Government of the Federation borrowed almost 342 million BAM. A, the entity’s total debt as of December 31, 2023. was 6 billion and 91 million BAM, BHRT writes.
