During the last year, the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina hired 17 persons through a work contract. More than 130,000 marks were allocated from the budget for this. This is one of the reasons why the Office for the Audit of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued an opinion with a reservation for this ministry. In addition, they indicated that it cannot be confirmed that the official vehicles were used for a purpose.
The Office for the Audit of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina gave a qualified opinion to the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is headed by Minister Nenad Nešić. The basis for this opinion is the fact that the hiring of persons on the basis of employment contracts and changes in the labor-legal status of employees were not carried out in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Thus, during the last year, this ministry hired 17 people through work contracts. They are hired for tasks that, according to the job description, correspond to the regular tasks of the Ministry. Also, the minister’s adviser retired in March 2023, and after receiving severance pay, he was hired under a work contract for the period from April to August, for which he was paid 9,000 BAM.
“Therefore, engagement on the basis of a work contract is present for a long period of time for the performance of regular repetitive tasks and tasks of workplaces determined by the rulebook on internal organization, resulting in non-compliance with the regulations, i.e. non-transparent employment”, according to the Office for the Audit of the Institutions of BiH.
The Office further notes that the duties of the Secretary of the Ministry of Security are performed by authorization by a person who, through a fixed-term employment contract, is engaged to perform the duties of the Head of the Cabinet-Minister’s Advisor. The decision on the appointment was made by Minister Nešić, even though it is about a person who retired in 2022.
It is also stated that the Ministry did not, in accordance with internal acts, ensure the classification and arrangement of official and specialized vehicles, with the aim of establishing effective control and dedicated use of vehicles:
“On a certain number of orders, not all the required columns were filled in, such as the state of the meter when refueling, the time of departure and arrival, the daily mileage, the number of people in the vehicle, and the signature of the person borrowing the vehicle. We also observed that on the tested sample of travel orders, a significant mileage of loco driving was entered, and for some routes a higher mileage than the actual mileage for that route was entered. Due to the aforementioned shortcomings, based on the data from the Ministry’s travel orders on the use of official vehicles, we cannot confirm the intended use of official vehicles.”
Minister Nešić was not available for comment. He briefly said that he was on vacation. Transparency International BiH says that citizens often wonder if audit reports make sense, bearing in mind that institutions often do not implement audit opinions.
“I think that the thesis is wrong if we ask whether audit reports make sense. So the reports are like in any other country. We should ask the question whether judicial institutions make sense, whether the judiciary itself makes sense, that we have so many special departments that are supposed to process some of these matters, but which do not deal with these matters. Our key message is that the institutions should deal with it,” emphasizes Srđan Traljić, manager of public relations of Transparency International BiH.
The office determined that in 2023, out of a total of 12 previously given recommendations from 2022, the Ministry of Security implemented three of them, eight did not, while the implementation of one recommendation is ongoing, Federalna writes.
