The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina is considering today at its session the Draft Law on the Budget of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and International Obligations of BiH for 2025, proposed by the Presidency of BiH.
The House of Representatives adopted the proposed law in the first reading (principles), followed by an amendment phase in which deputies had the opportunity to submit amendments to the proposed text of the law, which were considered by the Committee on Finance and Budget of the House of Representatives.
The Committee adopted three amendments that became an integral part of the proposed budget, proposed by deputies: Rejhana Dervišević, Aida Baručija, Šemsudin Dedić and Nermin Mandra.
During the discussion on the proposed budget, deputy Miroslav Vujičić said that the SNSD Deputy Caucus and the Serbian Caucus had five amendments with which, as he said, they improved the budget submitted by the Presidency of BiH.
“Through these amendments, institutions that were planned and included in the budget, but at the cantonal or entity level, were excluded. We also took into account the salaries of workers in BiH institutions. We took into account that since the budget was not adopted, workers had lower coefficients compared to those planned by the Council of Ministers. We also took into account the fact that in some way the workers should be repaid through this budget that should be adopted. We submitted all these facts that we explained in our amendments to the Commission. The Commission had a different opinion, which is contrary to the position of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH,” said Vujičić.
He added that the position of the SNSD Club and the Serbian Club is that the Parliamentary Assembly should declare itself on the amendments they proposed, and they expect their amendments to be put to a vote.
“If our amendments, which improve the budget of the Presidency of BiH, are adopted, the SNSD Club will vote for the budget. We cannot support anything else that is not in accordance with the law and the Constitution of BiH. Any placement of institutions that were not formed by the Council of Ministers is unacceptable to us,” said Vujičić.
MP Sanja Vulić requested that the Minister of Finance and Treasury Srđan Amidžić address the MPs and ask them whether the amendments accepted by the Finance and Budget Commission are implementable.
“We will definitely not support this, because the cultural institutions and the financing of BHRT will remain. For us, this is unacceptable, unconstitutional and illegal, and therefore we will not support it. But in order to draw attention to this populist and incorrect, insincere example and the alleged concern for workers, I think it is very important to hear from the minister. Because we are not the ones who will not support something that is good for employees in the institutions of BiH, but the question is whether this is feasible,” said Vulić.
Deputy Chairwoman of the Committee for Finance and Budget Aida Baručija said that the Committee received five amendments from the SNSD and Serb Clubs and three amendments from members of the Committee – Rejhana Dervišević, Šemsudin Dedić, Nermin Mandre and Aida Baručija.
“We adopted the draft budget law with the adopted amendments of the Committee members, and the amendments of the SNSD and Serb Clubs were ‘rejected’,” said Baručija.
The Minister of Finance and Treasury Srđan Amidžić also addressed the MPs, saying that the essence of these amendments, where they differ, is in the sources from which any funds that would be used in the form of a one-time payment would be settled.
“We have one group of amendments that implied that this would be settled from the funds earmarked for those institutions that a significant number of parliamentarians believe have no place in the budget of the institutions of BiH – the so-called cultural institutions and BHRT, that this should be treated with some other budgets, and not with the budget of the institutions of BiH. That first group of amendments, where the SNSD is the proposer, implied that these funds should be used and returned to workers within the institutions of BiH, because it was considered unfair, as I understood it, to take from people within the institutions of BiH to give to someone else,” said Amidžić.
He added that “we have another group of amendments that treated this one-time assistance in a way that is absolutely unenforceable”.
Amidžić said that at the previous session, the Deputy Minister of Finance said that this budget, which was proposed, was unenforceable, that it needed to be corrected so that it could be implemented upon adoption.
“The amendments submitted in this form in no way resolve the issue of the unenforceability of the document that came from the Presidency. Even if we agree with these amendments, it absolutely did not address all the technical shortcomings related to the document that came from the Presidency of BiH. It did not eliminate the shortcomings, but this is just an expression of political will that is absolutely unenforceable,” said Minister Amidžić.
The parliamentary debate on the proposed budget is still ongoing, Federalna writes.
