Amidžić and the 'unconstitutional budget': When a minister criticizes what he himself did not prepare, and laws and the Constitution have been violated for nine months

By: A. Čorbo-Zećo

Minister of Finance of BiH Srđan Amidžić (SNSD) remembered the Constitution and laws!

He announced that he will not attend the session of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament tomorrow due to, as he claims, an illegal and flawed budget proposal.

He points out that the proposal does not provide funds for salary increases for 14,000 employees with secondary vocational education, nor for increased costs of meal allowances, although these rights are clearly defined by the collective agreement.

“If such a budget is adopted, 14,000 employees will not receive a salary increase, and meal allowance costs of over three million KM are not foreseen. The budget in this form does not allow even minimal functionality,” Amidžić warned.

He particularly criticized capital expenditures of almost 200 million KM.

“All details on how these funds will be spent have been deleted. We can have 200 million, but no one knows what it will be spent on. This is not just my objection, but also the objection of the Budget Sector of the Ministry of Finance – it has been clearly stated that neither salaries nor meal allowances can be paid,” the minister explained.

It is interesting that Amidžić is now invoking the law and the Constitution to block the budget, even though the deadlines for its adoption have not been met. According to the BiH Constitution and the Budget Law, the budget proposal must be submitted to the House of Representatives at least 60 days before the start of the fiscal year, and the budget must be adopted by January 1. Therefore, the Constitution has been violated for nine months, and the budget delay limits salary payments and capital projects, while the state functions based on temporary financial decisions.

Amidžić also highlighted the political dimension of the problem.

“Most Serbs accept the fact that they live in Dayton BiH, but Bosniaks constantly send evidence that they do not respect Dayton and workers' rights. This budget has ignored employees' rights for political gain,” he said.

His political observations about “Bosniak leaders’ hatred of Dayton” and “political interests above workers’ rights” sound particularly ridiculous when it is known that he systematically ignores his own administrative obligations, allowing the state to function without a budget and key payments.

Finally, the minister called on Serb representatives to remain united and not allow the adoption of what he called an unconstitutional budget, which in practice means that workers are denied their rights, and citizens are denied planned investments, which are anyway non-existent because we are on temporary financing!

Incidentally, the BiH Presidency, at an extraordinary session held on August 19, determined the Draft Law on the Budget of BiH Institutions and BiH International Obligations for this year.

According to the Global Framework of Fiscal Balance and Policies in BiH for the period 2025 to 2027, adopted on February 24, the framework for financing BiH institutions for this year was set at 1,570,500,000 KM.