State Budget on Hold: No Sessions Scheduled for the House of Representatives or the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly

(Patria) - The Presidency of BiH, with the votes of Željko Komšić and Denis Bećirović, adopted the Proposal for the Budget of BiH Institutions and International Obligations at an emergency session on August 19. Željka Cvijanović voted against because it is a proposal prepared by Komšić and Bećirović, and the changes in the Budget are not acceptable to SNSD.

To date, no sessions have been scheduled for either the House of Representatives or the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, so the Budget remains on hold, and institutions are operating under temporary financing. Consequently, there are no salary increases, especially not in state police agencies, whose union representatives are already warning state-level authorities about possible protests and work stoppages. Just imagine what would happen if, for example, the Border Police of BiH went on strike, especially since they are already working under difficult conditions and are short of about 800 police officers.

Several state representatives have confirmed that they have no information about holding a session of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. If the Budget is adopted through regular procedure with the possibility of amendments, everything could drag on until late autumn.

SNSD has already announced that they will not support a Budget that allocates 20 million KM for BHRT, as well as funds for cultural institutions of national importance. Although this was an obligation of the Council of Ministers of BiH under the decision of the High Representative of BiH, Christian Schmidt, the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Borjana Krišto, and other members of the Council of Ministers of BiH did not insist on resolving the financing of these institutions, whose work is jeopardized, and in some of them employees have not received salaries for several months.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly is Marinko Čavara, so it is up to him to agree with the Collegium on the date for holding the session.

Regarding the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Chairman Nikola Špirić announced that there will be no support for the budget until discussions are held and an agreement is attempted.

All indications are that the Budget of BiH Institutions will not be adopted in the near future, while the patience of employees in BiH institutions is running out.