Arnaut Accused of Marketing: HDZ Does Not Want to Abolish Severance Pay for Politicians

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - MP and Head of the HDZ BiH Caucus in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Nikola Lovrinović requested that the proposal to reduce severance pay for BiH officials be removed from today's session. After seeing that there would not be a majority for his conclusion, he withdrew the conclusion. However, the discussion before that was heated.

He stated that he had requested at the extended Collegium of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH to remove this item from the agenda, but his request was not granted. Therefore, he proposed to the MPs that the Bill amending the Law on Salaries and Benefits in BiH Institutions be removed from the agenda because it had not received the support of state parliamentarians earlier. He also proposed adopting a conclusion that would prevent the submission of the same acts that have been rejected, or with the same content and explanation, in the future. According to him, old solutions that have not received the support of lawmakers have been offered.

MP Damir Arnaut, the proposer of the Bill amending the Law on Salaries and Benefits in BiH Institutions, stated that the removal of this item was not allowed because it was a mandatory item and that any other procedure would constitute a violation of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH. He asked why Lovrinović did not say this when it came to the excise tax law, which was proposed from session to session.

He explained that he had resubmitted the law because some colleagues had said they voted against it by mistake.

Lovrinović replied that he could not believe that the House of Representatives of the PSBiH was being turned into a "farce" and that Arnaut had deliberately devised a technique to submit the bill under an urgent procedure, and that the Rules of Procedure allowed for this item to be removed from the agenda.

Arnaut attempted to explain that voting on Lovrinović's conclusion violated the Rules of Procedure, as this was a mandatory agenda item.

SDS MP Dragan Mektić generally criticized the agenda of today's session of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH, stating that there was no serious item on the agenda.

"Where is our rule of law, judiciary, or corruption that is destroying this society?" Mektić asked, adding that he could not understand why lawmakers were not discussing the EU, ANP, election fraud, or economic issues.

He called on MPs to stop adopting reports and "beating empty straw," adding that he had calculated how much a session of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH costs. According to him, for 42 MPs, approximately seven thousand KM are added, which they receive with all privileges, leading to millions.

"Where is the new convocation of the Council of Ministers of BiH? Give us some measures so that we can try to solve some of the burning issues. This is a great disaster," Mektić said.

MP of United Srpska Nenad Stevandić stated that he also disagreed with submitting the same laws that have already failed in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. He called Arnaut's move engaging in marketing, not substance.

"If we are going to engage in marketing, I can also propose a law on secession tomorrow, not of Republika Srpska, but of one of the cantons. The PSBiH will reject it, I will resubmit it, and then I will do marketing. This makes the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH unserious," Stevandić said.