Mostar's budget can hardly satisfy big appetites

The Draft Budget for 2021 was presented to the councilors of the City Council of Mostar today. The proposed 69 million marks, to which 20 million transferred funds from last year will be added, seems insufficient for all the wishes and needs that have accumulated over the past 8 years, during which Mostar has not had legislative authority.

Councilors submitted numerous amendments to the draft, and it will be presented to the councilors again on April 12, after a public hearing, which will be held online due to epidemiological measures.

"We have quite a few projects carried over from last year that were also partly not completed, probably due to Covid and the situation we were in. We will have a considerable amount for projects that are important to citizens, these are vital things for all of us," said the Mayor of Mostar, Mario Kordić.

For Arman Zalihić, a councilor from SDP, the budget is not developmental. He points out that most of it will go to salaries and material services, while a smaller portion is allocated for capital investments.

"An additional problem, in my opinion, is that the part allocated for capital investments should be done with money distributed by councilors, i.e., city area commissions," said Zalihić.