House of Peoples of BiH PS on the budget of BiH institutions, there was no majority to first limit the salaries of officials

(Patria) - An emergency session of the House of Peoples of the BiH PS has begun. Given that the order of agenda items has been reversed compared to yesterday's session of the House of Representatives of the BiH PS, delegates Šefik Džaferović, Dženan Đonlagić, and Zlatko Miletić requested that the Proposal for Amendments to the Law on Salaries and Benefits be considered first, and only then the Budget, as proposed by the BiH Presidency's conclusion.

Dragan Čović, delegate of the HDZ BiH, said that there is no more important document in this country than the budget.

“To tie the law that affects the budget in any way, and to tie someone's hands if you don't care about the budget passing, I care a lot. This is the third proposal we are considering, and now it comes from one member of the Presidency. All laws that come to Parliament must go through the regular procedure. I agree that this should go through the regular procedure, but if no one else cares about the budget being adopted, there is no reason for Croats to be against the second item, but do not put us in a situation where you set the criteria. The expenditure side is connected to hundreds of laws, not just this one. I think we should stick to the agenda as we defined it,” said Čović.

In his reply to Čović, Džaferović said that budgets have always been on time, and that those who reacted to High Representative Christian Schmidt should ask themselves why elections were held, and why it was like that.

“We will approach the Budget very critically. We will certainly support the Law on Salaries, which stipulates that the highest salaries will not increase, there is no doubt about that. I have voted many times in the creation of the Budget and voted on the Budget. It is an elementary rule that you must have laws to plan revenues, and if you want to change policies and laws, but there are rebalances,” said Džaferović.

Dženan Đonlagić said that the government is responsible for the budget.

“The budget is not a matter of the people, the budget is a reflection of government policies. That is the essence of the budget. The budget was late before. Your man from HDZ sat as the line minister before and he carries the initiative for respecting deadlines. When we talk about amendments to the Law on Salaries and Benefits, it is not a game with coefficients, the coefficients of certain early positions are not being changed. The issue is the calculation of the base amount, not the coefficients. And this draft law addresses that,” said Đonlagić.

Miletić said that he is willing to support the Budget, and when it comes to amendments to the Law on Salaries, there is no need to wait for the line minister to determine the amendments as instructed by the Council of Ministers of BiH.

“There is no need to wait three months and receive increased salaries during that time,” said Miletić.

Nikola Špirić called on the parliamentary majority to adopt the agenda and start the discussion.

The House of Peoples did not accept the exchange of agenda items because there were seven votes in favor.

Safet Softić said that he received the envelope with the Budget five minutes before the session.

“I haven't even seen the budget. And therefore, I will vote against the urgent procedure and against the budget,” said Softić.

Delegate Džemal Smajić said that the Speaker Špirić and Deputy Speaker Ademović were in such a hurry that they did not want to accept the request to hold the session at 12 o'clock, so that they would have at least a little time to review the Budget.

“I will not support the urgency of this law,” said Smajić.

Špirić said that the Budget arrived in the House of Peoples from the BiH Presidency on March 21, and from the House of Representatives of the BiH PS this morning, and that there was still time for delegates to familiarize themselves with the Budget in the past nine days.