Out of the total number of employees in BiH, which is about 720,000 people, almost 240,000 of them are employed in institutions, companies and agencies owned by the state. Political analyst Zarko Papic emphasizes that they are soldiers of political parties that enable the ruling parties to remain in power and to prevent any significant reforms in the country.
Papic said that the reform agenda is the process that should complete the transition in our country, but that it has serious deficiencies because of which was neglected the social aspect. He said that the main obstacle to the implementation of the reform agenda in BiH, as well as a letter of intent to the IMF, will be huge public spending and huge administration costs within it.
“In BiH is employed near 90,000 people in the management and administration at all levels. On 720,000 of total employees this means that one from the administration comes to a total of 7 employees. The total number in public sector including education and health is close to 200,000. If you add 40,000 people who work in public companies to that, you will get a number of 240,000 people. When that number is multiplied by 4, you get a million voters,” said Papic.
He said that the parties are held in power due to the fact that employment in the public sector is clientelistic and nepotistic, from the driver to the advisor, adding that this kind of people “do not vote because they think that the party is better than the other ones, but they vote for their workplace”.
He repeated once again that the huge public spending will be a main obstacle to the implementation of the reform agenda, because there is the question of interest, both material and political.
In the end, he concluded that the only thing in financial terms in BiH which has been reduced from 2007 are social benefits.
“Share of GDP is reduced by 15 %, and everyone is talking that there is too much social benefits. As for poverty, I will quote the UN’s data and say that 700,000 people are on the poverty line, and every 6th citizen consumes between 3 and 5 BAM on a daily basis. This is African poverty,” said the analyst.
To recall, about 64 % of GDP is annually spent on financing of bulky public apparatus in BiH so it is right to say that “national movement for the bureaucracy” became a cancer that destroys the entire economic system of BiH.
(Source: E. Musinovic/Klix.ba)
