Blockades paid off for HDZ: Public administration vertically in the hands of process obstructors, the 'troika' clearly sees no problem!

By: A. Čorbo-Zećo

The Croatian Democratic Union, thanks to the 'Troika's' compromise, will manage public administration vertically. Simply put, SDP, NIP, and Our Party have handed over this important segment related to BiH's path to the European Union to HDZ and Dragan Čović, the same party that has directly blocked public administration reform for years.

Through the policy of compromise, which they skillfully promote in the media, they have actually appeased Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, and they have continued this by handing over the Public Administration Reform Coordinator's Office in BiH to HDZ, appointing Darko Kasap as coordinator, and in the Federation, Željko Škarica has been appointed coordinator for the reform of public administration of the FBiH instead of Enver Išerić.

Although the Minister of Justice comes from the Croatian people at both the state and entity levels, Bosniaks have not managed to secure positions as coordinators for public administration reform. They previously boasted about having brought back public administration and achieving a 12-12-12 parity. However, with the appointment of Kasap at the state level, it became clear that there is no such parity.

Then the story was lowered from a higher level to a lower one. Išerić will be replaced by Škarica, a long-time employee of the FBiH Ministry of Justice and a federal administrative inspector.

We remind you that public administration reform was obstructed by the former Minister of Finance from HDZ, Jelka Milićević.

The Troika has clearly forgotten that, in addition to numerous previous requests from the Public Administration Institute, the Federal Ministry of Finance has never registered the Public Administration Institute in the Register of Budget Users, nor has it acted on any conclusion of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordering that ministry to secure funds for the staffing of the Institute.

Incidentally, the European Commission, in its Opinion on Bosnia and Herzegovina's request for membership in the European Union of May 29, 2019, listed public administration reform as one of the fourteen conditions.

“Complete the necessary steps in public administration reform to improve the overall functioning of public administration by ensuring a professional and depoliticized civil service and a coordinated approach to policy-making throughout the country,” the European Commission's Opinion states.

And yet, there is a constant obstruction of the public administration reform process in the Federation, and although the culprits for these blockades are recognized, the Troika parties have handed over the main say in this segment to the obstructors from HDZ. It seems that the blockades have paid off for no one as much as for HDZ, which, we remind you, blocked the Federation for four years, and was rewarded in such a way that, by Christian Schmidt's decision, they became an indispensable party for forming the government.