Although they work very rarely, only a few days a month, Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) parliamentarians, ministers, directors, assistants and secretaries have official vehicles at their disposal 24 hours a day, and not just any kind.
Mostly expensive limousines of special specifications are used by officials for private purposes, and they are often driven by members of their families. And, of course, there are no sanctions.
The abuses are enabled by one article of the Rulebook by which the head of the institution can grant himself the use of the vehicle 24 hours a day, because the travel orders show only the monthly mileage without the route and the reason for the trip.
The crisis seems to be an unfamiliar term for BiH politicians and officials. Despite the numerous debts that BiH is burdened with, they did not find a valid reason not to afford luxury vehicles. Unlimited use, paid fuel and service costs, and all at the expense of the state, that is BiH citizens. The last who was honored with a car worth more than 300 thousand BAM is the president of the Republika Srpska (RS), Milorad Dodik. However, in addition to business obligations, officials often use expensive cars for private purposes, and without sanctions.
“Official vehicles are subject to numerous abuses, so they often end up in resorts and holiday homes. Obviously, this is how you buy the support of employees in institutions, secretaries of ministries and whoever has the right, and that must be put to an end,” says Sasa Magazinovic, SDP representative in the BiH House of Representatives.
And all according to the law, because the Rulebook on the conditions of procurement and the way of using official vehicles in the institutions of BiH allows them to do so. The head of the institution approves the use of the vehicle for himself without any control by the competent authorities.
Precisely the citizens are those who finance the expensive fleet of BiH officials and they do not take any other steps except protesting. This, as the interlocutor claims, is the key problem. While the institutions, it seems, compete in luxury, the state is in debt, and the citizens are silent.
“The indignation that citizens have and show on social networks does not reach them, they do not see protests or that people vote radically differently, and this impunity that lasts for many years leads to the feeling that everything is allowed,” told journalist Semir Mujkic.
