Unlike miners who are not given their hard-earned small wages, politicians, especially those at the state level, will receive up to 8.000 marks for their poor work.
And that already from the April salary. While the average net salary in Bosnia and Herzegovina is slightly more than 1,200 marks, the highest state officials, after the last increase in the base from 535 to 600 BAM, will collect six to eight times more per month.
Sasa Magazinovic, a representative in the House of Representatives of the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Parliament, asked the Ministry of Finance of BiH about the proposal for the budget of the institutions for 2023, to which Minister Zoran Tegeltija answered.
“What exactly is your position as the Minister of Finance on this issue regarding the increase in the salaries of officials? What have you done to prevent an increase in the salaries of officials? What do you intend to do in the coming period so that everyone can show their feelings for the people of this country,” Magazinovic asked.
“I express my satisfaction that the Presidency determined the budget proposal that will be sent to the Parliament, which can be adopted by the end of this month. The Budget Law defines the fund for benefits, salaries, and everything else. Everything else is the amount of the base. This is an issue of the Law on Wages and it needs to be solved through it because it is the only systemic solution, although there is a law in this Parliament that tries to correct something, I think it worsens the law. The Presidency also established a system that complicates The conclusion of the Council of Ministers is to make a draft law in the next three months, which was confirmed today by the Presidency with the conclusion that it should be done in three months,” Tegeltija answered yesterday.
He reminded that at the level of the Council of Ministers, a conclusion was adopted by which the ministers waived salary increases.
“I want to say that the problem of salaries is not a problem of the highest but the lowest salaries. The law that was passed earlier clearly established what salaries should be. These are all things that must be solved systemically, not through individual changes. What you are talking about is less than 90 people in BiH, their income is not measured in percentages, but per mille. The whole effect of their salary increase is 500.000 BAM. In the Law on Wages, there is 2.5 percent of funds that managers can distribute through incentives, 20 million BAM,” Tegeltija emphasized.
The citizens of our country find it increasingly difficult to survive paycheck to paycheck with every new price increase.
“Anything can be done, as long as no one complains”. Doctor Dragan Đorđić comments on this increase in the salaries of officials at the BiH level. Although he chose to stay in his country, he is not optimistic that it can get better.
“If you really ask how health workers live, I can actually say that they live as others want, otherwise if we all lived well, no one would work privately. It is obvious that there is no way to change anything here, maybe I leave it to some younger generations “, says Đorđić.
Those who make the future of BiH are also aware of the problem in the society. After finishing high school, 21-year-old Milan Koprivica gave up further education and started working.
“How difficult it is nowadays, especially for a young man. I won’t say that the Balkans is the worst, but I will say that it is one of the worst places to live today,” he says.
Many young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina already make the decision to leave the country during their education. There are also those who return or do not think about life outside the borders of their homeland.
Almasa and Suzana volunteer at youth centers in Tuzla. While Almasa is not thinking about leaving the country, Suzana says she is not sure, hoping that she will have a chance for a decent life here.
“Because I’m fighting with myself somehow to determine in which direction to move. Is it even worth it for me to stay here, to invest my effort and work or to find better opportunities,” Suzana Dusanic says.
“What is it that keeps me in the first place? Well, it’s probably the love for this country. There’s also that old Bosnian stubbornness that won’t let us surrender right away,” Almasa Becic says.
Suzana adds that she is trying to influence the creation of opportunities in her homeland, unlike Mehan and Armin, who, they say, realized immediately after school that they did not have that future.
“The wages are not good. I have been in Germany for a year. Life is better, more money,”Mehan Celinkovic says.
“I am forced to go? Why? There is no perspective of any. I just don’t see myself here that much anymore,” Armin Celinkovic adds.
At the same time, the situation in state institutions is much more comfortable.
With a monthly income that exceeds one’s annual income, bare survival is not on the list of priority topics.
