State deputies without debate on Reform Agenda due to absence of Council of Ministers representatives

(Patria) - The House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament at today's session considered, under an urgent procedure, the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Salaries and Benefits in BiH Institutions, proposed by deputies Milan Dunović, Zlatan Begić, and Vlatko Glavaš.

An amendment to the provision of the law relating to salary increase due to special working conditions for employees with higher education, vocational training, and secondary education who perform complex IT application tasks related to the study, planning, definition, selection, standardization, unification, development, creation, regulation, management, maintenance, and administration of IT communication systems in BiH institutions, as well as those who possess valid certificates related to confirmation of special professional competence, from 30 to 50 percent of the basic salary, was proposed.

The explanation of the proposed law stated that the current Law on Salaries and Benefits in BiH Institutions does not keep pace with the real level of responsibility, complexity, and market value of the jobs performed by IT personnel with vocational training and secondary education.

By amending the Law, which would ensure an increase/bonus of 30 to 50 percent for workers with vocational training and secondary education, an obvious oversight (and injustice) towards this category of workers would be corrected, and further departures of employees with vocational training and secondary education from BiH institutions would be prevented, which would endanger the functioning of the IT support system to the extreme.

The aim of the amendment to the Law is to enable fair and realistic valuation of the work of IT professionals with vocational training and secondary education through the amendment of the Law, taking into account the complexity, responsibility, and critical role of the jobs performed by these employees in the maintenance, security, and continuity of the information systems of BiH institutions.

The House of Representatives, at today's session, did not discuss the Reform Agenda document due to the absence of representatives of the BiH Council of Ministers, the proposer of that agenda item.

Deputies, without debate, completed the consideration of the Decision Proposal on the Council of Persons with Disabilities of BiH, proposed by deputy Rejhana Dervišević, and a debate was held on the dismissal of Valentina Rupčić from the position of member of the Management Board of Radio Television of BiH.

The House of Representatives did not accept the request of the Joint Committee for Administrative Affairs to consider the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Institutions at the BiH Level under an urgent procedure.

Deputies decided that the proposed law would be considered under an expedited procedure.

The proposed amendment stipulates that a member of the Committee for Decision-Making on Conflict of Interest in Institutions at the BiH Level is entitled to a permanent and regular monthly compensation for work in the Committee.

The compensation for the work of a Committee member is determined in the amount of the average monthly net salary in BiH, expressed on an annual level for the calendar year preceding the year in which the average net salary will be applied, in accordance with the data from the BiH Statistics Agency, and other material rights and benefits in the amount determined by the Agency.

The Chairman of the Joint Committee for Administrative Affairs, Obren Petrović, explaining the proposed law, stated that the aforementioned bill was submitted to the Joint Committee for Administrative Affairs by members of the Committee for Decision-Making on Conflict of Interest in Institutions at the BiH Level, and that it concerns an amendment to the article of the law regulating compensation for the work of Committee members.

- The explanation highlighted all the reasons that we consider justified, as they indicate open discrimination and inequality of committee members, both of the current convocation and some future convocations of the committee - stated Petrović.

He pointed out that they investigated the amount of income of members of similar bodies in neighboring countries.

He stated that if we want to have a professional, independent, and pro-European body, similar to neighboring countries, that works on the most complex cases of conflict of interest of public officials in institutions at the BiH level, he believes that this bill is justified.

- If we want and need to request a report from this committee every six months or annually, if we are dissatisfied with their work, we do not have to punish them financially, but we must demand that we change the committee and elect a new committee that will strictly work based on this law that we have adopted - added Petrović.

Deputy Jasmin Emrić stated that the proposed provisions of the amendments to the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Institutions at the BiH Level are in contradiction with Article 39, Paragraph 4 of the Law on Salaries and Benefits of Employees in BiH Institutions, which stipulates that the monthly compensation for work in management boards, supervisory boards, and other working bodies may not exceed the base amount for salary calculation for employees in BiH institutions.

- This is a collision of legal provisions, and given this collision, the conditions for considering the proposed amendments to the law under an urgent procedure are not met, because we do not have the opportunity to submit amendments and improve this bill - said Emrić.

Deputy Šemsudin Mehmedović said that he sees no reason for the urgency of adopting this law.

- What you are proposing, or rather what the secretary of the Administrative Committee, who was also elected secretary of the Committee for Prevention of Conflict of Interest, has proposed, clearly indicates that it is only about the interest of one person.

This way of working in Parliament and proposing laws is a disgrace. This increase from 600 to 1,600 KM for only seven members of the Committee represents an increase in budget allocations of more than 100,000 KM annually - emphasized Mehmedović.

Deputy Ermina Salkičević Dizdarević stated that the SDP BiH Deputies' Club will not support the urgent procedure, i.e., these amendments to the law.

- Regardless of the fact that we acknowledge the importance of the existence of such a committee and the seriousness of the work that the committee should engage in, we have not seen real results so far.

We do not see real results of the committee's work, because we are talking about preventing conflicts of interest. We will not be able to support the law in this part, given that we do not see, as I said, actual work - stated Salkičević Dizdarević.

After the debate on all agenda items, the Chairman of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament, Marinko Čavara, called a break for deputies to prepare for voting.