Bandić: KS Government Hopes to Move to 'Higher' Positions After Next Elections, Leaving Accumulated Problems to Others

(Patria) - While the 'Trojka' coalition is busy seeking votes to reshuffle the coalition in Sarajevo Canton (KS) and secure votes at the FBiH level to fulfill HDZ's wishes, through party and family hiring, public enterprises and public services in KS are collapsing due to this stepmotherly approach focused solely on personal gain.

This was stated in an interview with the Patria News Agency by the Member of the KS Assembly and member of the Main Board of the Party of BiH, Muamer Bandić, who says we are facing a financial and organizational collapse of public services caused by poor management.

Personal Budgetary Interests

No one is talking about this, Bandić adds, because those who should be dealing with it are too busy with power struggles and preserving their acquired positions.

- We can already sense the scale of the coming hurricane through the announced strike of healthcare personnel. Doctors and medical workers are a valuable and scarce resource for any society, especially here in BiH, as we are facing a hyper-outflow of professionally trained staff.

The approach to this problem largely reflects the model this Government is trying to solve it with by procrastinating and pretending it doesn't exist. Instead of the KS Government meeting the healthcare workers halfway, who already in December last year requested a revision of hourly rates due to the increased cost of living, it delays the formation of a negotiation team and then the negotiation process itself - Bandić tells us.

In the meantime, he emphasizes, from the first request of healthcare workers until today, the cost of living has increased by 500 KM.

Similarly, our interlocutor states, during this year they planned to spend 80 million KM to finance the private healthcare sector, and in the first six months of 2023, an additional 50 million KM was allocated within the budget of the Health Insurance Fund for these needs, but there are not enough funds to minimally increase the hourly rates of healthcare workers in the public sector.

- It is interesting that when concrete systemic problems need to be solved, these smartest and most educated citizens have no solutions, or rather, the only solution they resort to in practice is procrastination and avoidance of problem-solving, all so as not to affect their personal budgetary interests.

This attitude of the authorities towards the public sector and this practice will result in an even greater outflow of healthcare workers from public institutions and thus lead to the weakening of the entire healthcare system for the citizens of Sarajevo Canton. And the Prime Minister should openly tell us why his Government is deliberately destroying the public healthcare of KS - Bandić notes.

Looking at it continuously, since the previous 'Trojka' government in KS, Bandić assesses that the attitude towards public sector workers is identical and unchanged.

Workers Are the Ones Suffering the Consequences

- Just as they treat healthcare workers today, they treated police officers, firefighters, teachers, and professors, as well as workers in public utility companies.

In the entire public sector of KS, workers are the ones suffering the consequences due to the incompetence of favored directors, who often do not even meet the legally prescribed conditions to hold these positions, but are well-integrated into the corrupt chain of management.

Let's recall the saga in the KS Assembly regarding the payment of one-time aid to public sector workers from last year, which the 'Trojka' parties did not support, and Sarajevo Canton already owes these people 38 million KM in unpaid court judgments - Bandić adds.

He emphasizes that the Government's approach to this problem is identical: avoid and procrastinate.

- And who are we talking to here about the rule of law and a legal state when the KS Government itself does not adhere to the law?

It is evident that the Government hopes to move to 'higher' positions after the next elections, like their predecessors, and leave all the burden of accumulated problems to someone else.

Good management of public resources, and public sectors such as healthcare, education, security, or utilities are our primary resource, must also include a fair attitude from the KS Government towards the people who provide these services, meaning that these people should be enabled to live with dignity from their work.

Only in this way can we expect to have good services and for Sarajevo to be a pleasant place to live.

The current attitude of the 'Trojka' parties towards the public sector of Sarajevo Canton is catastrophic and leads us to an almost certain collapse of the public sector and inevitable price increases for all services for the citizens of Sarajevo, because unfortunately, this is the only pattern based on which they solve the problems they accumulate - Bandić added in an interview with Patria.