CCI on the work of the Government and Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton: The failure is evident

The situation in which the Sarajevo Canton finds itself cannot be called satisfactory. Trust has been lost in the people leading processes and engaging in politics - corruption, crime and nepotism are the basic problems of society. There is a high unemployment rate, especially among young educated people. Problems have accumulated in the sphere of public utilities, water reductions, there is a constant danger of suspension of gas supply and public city transport... The security system, from finding perpetrators of criminal acts to their prosecution and punishment, does not meet the standards necessary for a safe life. The grey economy, black labour market and illegal competition are constantly present. The administration has been detected as extremely slow, especially in the segment of support for development projects and investments... The protection of pensioners is insufficient, there are no projects for easier and healthy aging. A deficit has accumulated in the Budget of the Sarajevo Canton from previous years, and at the same time, the debts of companies, whose founder is the Canton, are increasing year after year.

This gloomy review of the situation in the Sarajevo Canton is not the result of CCI monitoring. This is a quote from the exposé of the Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton, presented at the Assembly session in March 2015, at the beginning of the mandate, which these days marks its last days. The CCI warned then that what is important to detect is that the authorities, therefore, know perfectly well what the situation is in the community and in the area for which they are responsible. And that, accordingly, there is no excuse for inaction. And that any absence of evident improvement in the years ahead will be an indicator of the failure of that government and the direct responsibility of the ruling coalition parties. Because what is expected from the authorities is not listing problems but solving them. And the failure is - evident.

- The Government of the Sarajevo Canton, in the observed period, did not hold regular sessions every week, and especially did not adhere to the rule of finishing a started session no later than the next day, but work on measures from a certain session was often stretched over several continuations, intertwined with work on several other sessions and lasted for several weeks (and in extreme cases even several months). It can be said that the Government applied its own, somewhat chaotic, system of work, ignoring the regulations governing that area.

The implementation of as many as five strategies will remain for the next mandate. The Strategy for Youth was planned, through work programs, for implementation in each year of the mandate, but was only adopted in June 2018. The Strategy for Informatization of Primary and Secondary Schools in the Sarajevo Canton has still not been adopted, although it has been planned for years. The very important Development Strategy of the Sarajevo Canton was adopted during the mandate, but the Sarajevo Canton was one of the last cantons to get its development strategy (only the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton remained behind it).

The Government, from the elections in October 2014 to June 30, 2018, adopted a total of 93 different laws, which is at the level of implementation of the Government of the Tuzla Canton in this mandate. Of these, only 34 adopted laws are new, so-called fundamental ones. And the rest are merely amendments and supplements to existing legal acts.

Among the measures adopted by this Government and Assembly is also the decision to increase the price of heating services, which was revised under public pressure. And there is also the Law on Higher Education, which sparked fierce polemics and dissatisfaction and opposition from the academic community, which considers it a completely inappropriate solution for the functioning of the University of Sarajevo.

During the current mandate, violations of the Law on Budgets in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Law on Accounting and Auditing in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina were also registered. With the composition of the Government, in which, out of 13 members, there are only 2 women, the Government of the Sarajevo Canton violates the Law on Gender Equality, which stipulates that the percentage of the underrepresented gender must not be below 40% and which defines the current situation in the Government of the Sarajevo Canton as discrimination. The Constitutional Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has, in recent years, issued several decisions related to the violation of the right to local self-government in the Sarajevo Canton, which have not yet been implemented.

- The current mandate was also marked by insults on a national basis and physical assault on an opposition deputy from a minority people, which indicated a very low level of culture and tolerance of a part of the deputies of the cantonal assembly. And then - presumably to show that this previous incident was not just isolated incidents of individuals - a shameful decision was adopted to name one of Sarajevo's primary schools after a person with an extremely controversial biography and ideological views - an anti-Semite, a sympathizer of fascists and a misogynist. Historical revisionism and naming streets and institutions after criminals from World War II or our last war, or their sympathizers, are absolutely unacceptable. And a kind of hate speech (or acts), for which not only the direct perpetrators are responsible, but also all those who tolerate such behavior. Whether it happened in Mostar, Sarajevo or the Republika Srpska, it is irrelevant. And it is no excuse that streets in Mostar still bear the names of Ustasha criminals or that a student dormitory in Pale is named after a convicted war criminal from our last war. That is their shame. And this and similar things are Sarajevo's shame. And all together are our common shame. And the responsibility of politicians in power who would answer for such things in orderly legal states - state from the CCI.

The honor of the Assembly, the Canton, and even the state (because the mentioned decision also had international implications) was attempted to be protected by annulling the disputed decision in the first quarter of 2018. However, the school still bears the same name!

In four years of the mandate, only 54 sessions were held. More sessions were held by the Assembly of the Una-Sana Canton, 64, and the Assembly of the Zenica-Doboj Canton with 61 held sessions. It is particularly significant that the Assembly did not hold a single thematic session.