With the decision of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) made at the 31st session last month regarding the purchase of official vehicles worth 1.6 million BAM, the fleet of domestic politicians has once again become a hot topic. Since its independence to date, the country, facing the path of building its economy and complete infrastructure, has often been deficient in many aspects (there were frequently insufficient funds in the budget to increase allowances for maternity, single mothers, social categories, pensions, salaries, etc.), but never in BiH, in both of its entities, has there been a lack of funds in the budget for purchasing new official vehicles for the needs of its institutions and state-owned enterprises. The impressive size of the fleet of BiH politicians is evident from the fact that it has often been the subject of newspaper articles in the region for years, with informal conversations among some politicians quoted as saying they refuse to drive a car that their predecessor used.
Vehicle must have seat massage, TV, and black interior
During 2023, the public sector in BiH spent 18.5 million BAM on official cars, but this is not the final figure because, at the end of that year, they announced the purchase of an additional 12 cars. Referring to data from public procurement notices or tenders published on the Public Procurement Portal of BiH, last year the media published a detailed list – a review of institutions, agencies, public enterprises, municipalities, and cities throughout BiH that were procuring official cars in 2023, paying for them from the budget, with prices excluding VAT.
In the tender documentation, descriptions, and specifications can be found for the types of cars desired, so for one of the vehicles requested, it is stated that it must have ventilation and front massaging seats, a refrigerator, and a TV. The requested color is metallic black, and the interior of the vehicle must also be black.
The Presidency of BiH last year issued three tenders for the procurement of limousines and SUVs totaling 489.200 BAM (excluding VAT) or 572.364 BAM (including VAT).
Three years ago, when they were invited to a working dinner at the residence of the European Union (EU) Delegation chief Johann Sattler in honor of EU Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi, the President of the SDA Bakir Izetbegovic, the leader of the SNSD Milorad Dodik, and the leader of the HDZ BiH Dragan Covic arrived in premium brands such as the Mercedes S-Class, Audi A8 L, and VW Passat.
Around 5000 official vehicles in both entities
Adis Arapovic, a political scientist and former parliamentarian, tried to obtain precise data on the number of official vehicles in the FBiH. In an interview, he said that he sent 120 letters to the addresses of 120 individual institutions, administrative bodies, public enterprises, and companies majority-owned by the Government of FBiH for this purpose.
“From 90 percent of the responses received, I obtained information about 3600 official vehicles officially registered in institutions, administrative bodies, companies, and enterprises majority-owned by FBiH, with data missing from several other institutions and companies that never sent information. Adding to this number of around 1500 official vehicles from Republika Srpska (RS), we get a figure of around 5000 official vehicles at the state level of BiH. It turns out that every fifth car on the street is official. Taxpayers are not aware of this, nor of the fact that they are the ones paying for most of this,” says Arapovic.
As an independent representative in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the FBiH, Arapovic managed, he says, to achieve the adoption of the Draft Law on the Use and Procurement of Official Passenger Cars.
“We have witnessed for years examples where official vehicles were misused for private, party, and other purposes. Half of the cars are parked in front of private houses, we saw ministers, photographed, taking out plates from the trunk of the official car in front of their weekend houses. There are various examples that have become public thanks to investigative journalism. I initiated an initiative for the Federal government to adopt a regulation, a sub-legal act, that will prescribe the manner of using and procuring official passenger cars in administrative bodies, and that within that regulation, the marking of official cars with a prescribed sticker is mandatory, indicating that it is an official car, that it is known by number to whom it belongs, and that as part of that task, a unique register is established. The Federal Parliament supported that initiative and ordered the Government to adopt the regulation, but after six months after the adoption of that conclusion, the Federal government ignored it, and after five of my initiatives, there was no success on that issue. We were forced to propose a law, which is even a little too ambitious, to make a law for such a simple matter, but when the government does not want to regulate the issue by a sublegal act, then you have to force them in some other way, and that is the law,” he explains.
The outcome of that initiative, he notes, is that the House of Representatives adopted the draft law, a public discussion was held, but the bill never made it to the agenda.
“This means that the current and past political elite simply sees this as a source of privileges for themselves and will do everything to not regulate this issue, and when you consider how many official cars there are, how much they are paid for, how much is allocated for their maintenance, and the damage caused by the misuse of this form of public property, we come to tens of millions of BAM of public money being wasted, and all without any control,” Arapovic explained, and added on the issue of the status of the Law now:
“In principle, the Law is nominally alive; it is in parliament, the current parliamentary structure, any representative, any party club, any commission, authorized proposers, can now activate the final adoption of that law, if there is political will. This is their opportunity to show a different political practice, a high level of public, political, financial responsibility, and for this law to finally be adopted, and it will mean marking official cars, a unique register, and much more order in the use of this form of public property,” Arapovic concluded, recalling how even the Audit Office, in its reports, drew attention to the fact that when it comes to official cars, they are not managed in a responsible, prudent, or even lawful manner, Forbes writes.
E.Dz.