Canton Sarajevo Budget Empty: Maternity Benefits Not Paid, No Child Allowance, Public Sector Salaries Delayed

(Patria) - Public sector employees in Sarajevo Canton who receive salaries from the Canton Sarajevo Budget have not been paid for September. Maternity benefits and child allowances have also not been paid.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of Sarajevo Canton responded to mothers on maternity leave that they will receive the benefits on 14 October. Usually, benefits were paid by the 10th of the month.

Mothers on maternity leave did not hide their frustration on social media over the delay, given that most of them live off this benefit.

The President of the Union of Primary Education and Upbringing of Sarajevo Canton, Saudin Sivro, announced on social media that he was told that salaries for education workers would be paid on Friday, 11 October.

As early as this summer, speculation began that the Government of Sarajevo Canton had spent the budget of 1,530,505,602 BAM.

The now former rector of the University of Sarajevo, Rifat Škrijelj, warned that there was no money in the budget. He told Patria that there would not be enough money for salaries of UNSA employees for the last three months of 2024 precisely because someone had poorly planned the financial needs of the institution with 2,700 employees.

The Minister of Finance of Sarajevo Canton, Afan Kalamujić, called on the Government of Sarajevo Canton to prepare an urgent budget rebalance for 2024 and to prepare that in the budget for 2025, the first to be created under his supervision, many "popular things" will be replaced by essential ones.

Although Kalamujić did not specify what he meant by "popular things," it is clear that the Government of Sarajevo Canton had a practice of providing various incentives and paying for entertainment content.

According to information from Patria, the plan of the Government of Sarajevo Canton is to "borrow" money from public institutions to pay salaries. One of them is the Health Insurance Institute of Sarajevo Canton, from which the Government would take 60 million BAM.

No one from the Government of Sarajevo Canton commented during yesterday on the delays in salaries, maternity benefits, child allowances...