If the BiH Parliament and Council of Ministers do not start working, there will be no salaries from October

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Bećirović, convened a consultative meeting today to assess the situation and possibilities for the work of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. Representatives from the RS did not respond to the meeting, stating that the blockade continues.

Bećirović stated that a session of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly will be organized in mid-September because there are several important laws on the agenda.

“I would particularly emphasize the issue of the budget of BiH institutions. This is the second round of voting, the amendment phase is completed, and we all believe that the budget of the institutions must and should be adopted. It should have been adopted long ago,” emphasized Bećirović.

Bećirović added that all citizens suffer from such behavior, and if a decision on temporary financing is not made by the end of September, over 7,000 employees in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Republika Srpska will not receive their salaries. He wondered who would bear that part of the responsibility.

Head of the SDP BiH Club in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Saša Magazinović, said that “the opposition is waiting for Dodik to make a mistake, and Dodik is waiting for the opposition to make a mistake.”

“Both sides are waiting to declare the other traitors. That is the greatest fear that exists and the reason why they did not respond to the meeting,” he said.

Magazinović pointed out that the blockade is the biggest problem for thousands of people working in state institutions.

"Thousands of citizens from the RS will be counted who, at the end of September when the Decision on temporary financing expires, will not receive their salaries. Will the RS Government, Vučić, or someone else pay these salaries, I don't know, but they will have to explain to people why families cannot live from their work," he concluded.

Speaker of the SDA Club in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament, Adil Osmanović, said that he expects the OHR to sanction politicians who do not act in accordance with the Constitution and laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"We have left over a month in the Parliamentary Assembly for an attempt to find an agreement for the BiH institutions to work. We see that there are no breakthroughs. The arrival of the BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik at the session shows that he truly wants to block the work of that institution. The Dayton Agreement is in force, Annex 10 as well, and we expect the OHR to take steps as it has done in the past towards high-ranking officials in cantons, entities, and at the state level - that those who do not want to work in accordance with the Constitution and law be punished. What else can we expect? If the blockade continues and domestic institutions have no response, then we expect a reaction from the OHR, and in that sense was the statement of Šefik Džaferović," he said.

DF MP Dženan Đonlagić said that for salary payments from October, a new decision of the BiH Council of Ministers on temporary financing is needed, given that the Budget for 2021 has not yet been adopted.

"Serious financial implications can occur for the last quarter of the current year if the boycott of the functioning of the Council of Ministers and the BiH PA continues. So, if the Council of Ministers does not hold a session by September 30, from October 1 there will be a problem with the payment of all funds for those employed in BiH institutions," concluded Đonlagić.