The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH did not accept the proposal of MP Safet Kešo (SDA) to include in the agenda of today’s session the item “proposed conclusion of the House of Representatives of the BiH PA, which calls on the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, in accordance with the law prosecuting the president of the BiH entity Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik for publicly denying genocide in Srebrenica”.
This proposal did not have the required entity majority and was not included in the agenda.
Kešo said that on February 21, Milorad Dodik made a public statement regarding the decision of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina to amend the Law on the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center and said on that occasion that “genocide did not happen there, in Srebrenica, and everyone knows that.”
“With this statement, Milorad Dodik very explicitly and publicly denied the genocide in Srebrenica, which was determined and confirmed by a series of final judgments passed by the highest international courts, some national courts of foreign countries and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thereby committing a criminal offense for which the Criminal Code BiH foresees a prison sentence,” said Kešo.
The MPs did not support the proposal of MP Šemsudin Mehmedović (SDA) to include the item “Illegal decisions of the BiH Council of Ministers on the appointment of management of administrative organizations” in the agenda.
On the agenda of today’s session is the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Salaries and Remunerations in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, proposed by MP Šerif Špago (SDA), which will be considered by MPs in the first reading.
In the explanation, the proposer explained that he is submitting the proposed law to balance the salaries of budget beneficiaries.
“Given that the Law on Salaries and Remuneration in BiH Institutions established a disproportionate relationship in coefficients and salaries, from the lowest to the highest salary, and that the draft Law on the Budget of BiH Institutions and International Obligations of BiH for the year 2023 calculated salaries by applying basis in the amount of 630 KM, which would lead to an even greater disproportionate increase in salaries for positions with higher coefficients, we submit the proposal of this law to balance the salaries of budget beneficiaries,” it is stated, among other things, in the explanation of the proposed law.
The Finance and Budget Committee of the House of Representatives supported the principles of the proposed law.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Marinko Čavara (HDZ) expects that the process of appointing the leadership of the Federation of BiH will be resolved on Monday at the session of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH.
“As imposed by the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, if the three candidates for president and vice presidents of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina do not reach an agreement on who is the president, the House of Representatives will decide on that, and I expect that this will be resolved at the session on Monday if there are no new obstructions such as those that we have witnessed in the last few weeks,” said Čavara.
He pointed out that the new coalition majority was not established long ago, stating that a lot of tolerance and understanding is needed to achieve what can be done together.
“Points of dispute should not be sought. It is necessary to take into account what is the greatest interest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is the European path and to stabilize the situation in this unstable world,” emphasized Čavara.
Chair of the SDA Caucus in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, Šerif Špago, expressed his satisfaction that the MPs of this house adopted today the bill on amendments to the Law on Salaries and Remunerations in the Institutions of BiH in the first reading, which he proposed.
“The next phase is the amendment phase when everyone can make amendments. This will be followed by the adoption of the bill in the second reading,” Špago told reporters during the session of the House of Representatives.
He proposed this law to prevent “getting into a situation where, by increasing the base, the highest salaries, which mainly officials in BiH institutions have, increase disproportionately”.
He says he was optimistic from the beginning that the law would be adopted because the Committee on Finance and Budget had previously met and supported this legal solution.
