During the negotiations on the budget rebalance, the Sarajevo Canton Government, due to the reduced projection of funds from the Federal Ministry of Finance, abandoned the rebalance. Accordingly, a decision was made to conclude, or reserve funds from projects that were not implemented or the implementation was below 55 percent in the previous period of the year.
The first on the list that were left without funds are the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the Ministry of Communal Economy, as well as Civil Protection. Police officers in the Sarajevo Canton remain without new equipment. Two million intended for the Cantonal Government Office for Support to Srebrenica and the Implementation of the Law on Srebrenica, were redirected to other purposes.
“In mid-November, it was evident that these projects would not be able to be implemented by the end of the year, accordingly, we reserved these funds with that Government decision, accordingly, the priority will be to cover salaries, where necessary, and the remaining funds, if a deficit situation may arise, will be directed to reducing the deficit,” said Sarajevo Canton Finance Minister Afan Kalamujić.
“That the head of the office is not appointed is not our problem, it is not the problem of the citizens of Srebrenica, it is the problem of those who lead politics in the Sarajevo Canton. We will also consider legal options to challenge such decisions where, in an unfair way, through someone else’s mistake, citizens are deprived of funds intended for projects,” said the Vice President of the Republika Srpska, Ćamil Duraković.
The Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton, Nihad Uk, said that all social benefits planned in the budget will be paid and that none of the budget beneficiaries will experience a single month without a salary.
The Sarajevo Canton is going through the process of lowering the weighting 2 to a level that will be more equal to other cantons.
“It is very likely, economically speaking, that this goes into current spending, to meet the needs of the budget. Two reasons could be that it was not planned well, and the other is that there is a lack of financial resources,” believes Admir Čavalić, a member of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament.
Is there a deficit in the Sarajevo Canton budget or were the funds not managed well? As we have learned, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not yet allocated 200 million marks to the cantons. According to this allocation, the Sarajevo Canton expects 36 million marks, BHRT writes.
