If police in Sarajevo Canton remain without salaries, they will at least have a helicopter to take pictures with!

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – The Sarajevo Canton Government has decided to establish a Helicopter Unit and procure a helicopter, for which an estimated 25 million KM will be needed. Six new employees will be hired in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton (head of pilot team, three helicopter pilots, an aircraft mechanic, and an operator), and the helicopter procurement should be carried out as soon as possible using loan funds.

Given that amendments to the Law on the Allocation of Public Revenue in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina could be adopted, the draft of which was approved by the House of Peoples of the Parliament of FBiH, which would abolish the ponder for Sarajevo Canton, meaning around 100 million KM less in the Sarajevo Canton Budget, the question arises whether Sarajevo Canton will be able to finance new loan obligations. There is also a possibility that this law will not receive support because the FBiH Government has already given a negative opinion, but it will be sent for public debate. At the end of July, the House of Representatives of the Parliament of FBiH adopted this draft.

The president of NIP, Elmedin Konaković, and a representative in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, stated at yesterday's press conference that in the event of the abolition of the ponder, they cannot guarantee salaries for teachers, educators, and police officers.

“Sarajevo Canton would find itself in such a situation if someone took away 100 or 120 million KM, which would be a quarter of the indirect tax that Sarajevo receives. That is an atomic bomb, and it would hit the main engine. Sarajevo Canton generates 1.2 billion in VAT annually more than the entire Republika Srpska collects,” said Konaković.

He added that Tuzla Canton is seriously damaged, but that the law amendments will create anarchy in the fiscal system of FBiH.

“I call on economic experts to address this issue and warn their colleagues about what could happen to Sarajevo, and then linearly to all cantons,” said Konaković.

Speaking in the context of helicopter procurement, Konaković said that if ever, now is the time it is needed.

“Human lives have no price; we did not gloat when it was necessary to extinguish fires, when people from Bjelašnica and surrounding mountains were saved by the goodwill of Milorad Dodik and his consent to deploy a helicopter and transport an injured person. Sarajevo Canton should have resolved this long ago; it is a functional, multi-purpose helicopter that can be used for various purposes, and our efforts will not be to buy one, but to buy several in the next few years,” said Konaković.