Dujmović continues as usual: Took money from state cultural institutions and gave it to the Mostar Theatre!

Zora Dujmović, Minister of Culture and Sports, continues to do as she pleases, disregarding public opinion and all the outrage that arose after she, contrary to laws and regulations, under the guise of "everyone in the Federation should know about the ministry," distributed budget funds in a way that harmed major events such as SFF or MESS, writes the Patria news agency.

Although nine cultural institutions have requested her resignation, it has not bothered her much, as Prime Minister Fadil Novalić has not reacted adequately so far, even though his party, SDA, warned about this anomaly.

Dujmović has gone a step further, and Patria brings the full background of the story.

Namely, at its 86th session on November 6, 2013, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that it would temporarily take over the management and co-financing of cultural institutions of importance to BiH and established a Transfer for institutions of science and culture of importance to FBiH and BiH.

The transfer was intended for the operation of these institutions and was sufficient to cover about 10 months of material costs, gross salaries, and employee benefits. Its amount was KM 1,400,000 and was realized through the Federal Ministry of Education and Science in the amount of KM 800,000 for the Academy of Sciences and Arts of BiH, the National and University Library of BiH, the Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired in BiH, and the BiH Cinematheque, and through the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports in the amount of KM 600,000 for the Museum of Literature and Theatre Arts of BiH, the Historical Museum of BiH, and the Art Gallery of BiH.

The FBiH Government also set this transfer in the Budget for 2015 with identical criteria in the same amount for the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports. During this year, the Federal Ministry of Education and Science signed contracts with the same beneficiaries as in 2014. However, the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports conducted a public call procedure for this transfer as well, to which "institutions of importance to BiH and FBiH whose programs and projects ensure the continuity of work and maintenance of activities at the achieved level" could apply.

Although the Public Call was published on August 26, 2015, more than four months later (December 29)?! The Ministry published the results for this transfer and added two new beneficiaries: the Croatian National Theatre in Mostar and the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo.

The transfer was supposed to be distributed directly in the Decision on the program of expenditure of funds to end beneficiaries, as stated at the 86th session of the FBiH Government on November 6, 2013, when this Transfer was established.

The Croatian National Theatre Mostar, as a cantonal public institution, received a record amount of funds, which no other beneficiary received from all Ministry transfers, including SFF, sports associations, MESS, and heritage sites.

- If we analyze all three transfers from the field of culture, we can conclude that KM 394,000 was allocated for performing arts, of which HNK Mostar received KM 180,000 (46%), and all other festivals, associations, and institutions from performing arts, a total of 15 of them, received KM 214,000 (54%). This amount of KM 214,000 includes support for MESS, the Fedra Festival from Bugojno, the Theatre Games in Jajce, the East West Center, the Theatre in Mostar, the Bosnian National Theatre in Zenica, and other beneficiaries).

The question of the selection of beneficiaries, the method of scoring, and the determination of the amount of funds for support is raised again. Furthermore, if we add the increasingly frequent claims that the entire process was conducted by ad hoc commissions appointed by the minister, headed by her advisors, and the duration of the tender procedure of 4 months for 5 beneficiaries?!, we arrive at a serious question - What is the future of culture in BiH while Minister Zora Dujmović is at the head of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports, whose actions the FBiH Government has tolerated so far?! - stated our source.