Emrić: Will the Trojka agree to the division of the Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina into three parts?

(Patria) - Despite last week's warning that we publicly issued about the unjustified and disastrous nature of continuing the practice of dividing, splitting, and "trojka-ing" institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at today's session of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Proposal for Amendments and Additions to the Rulebook on Internal Organization of the Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: Proposal for Rulebook) was included in the agenda, according to a statement from Member of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Jasmin Emrić (NES).

"The Rulebook implements the plan to divide the Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: Agency) into three parts, as it foresees the establishment of two new and independent internal organizational units in Mostar and Banja Luka.

Initially, these two new independent internal organizational units would have a total of eight employees, four in each department. This number would likely increase very quickly and significantly, as is the case with the Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina," the statement said.

It is added that the proposed establishment of new departments of the Agency in Mostar and Banja Luka is contrary to the Decision of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which established that the seat of the Agency is in Sarajevo ("Official Gazette of BiH" No. 16/02).

"Furthermore, Article 28 of the Decision on the Principles for Determining the Internal Organization of Administrative Bodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates that organizational units outside the seat of the administrative body can only be established if it is foreseen by law or a decision of the Council of Ministers, or if the specific nature of certain tasks requires it. The justification for the Proposal for Rulebook does not explain what is considered the "specific nature of certain tasks" in this case, nor can it be concluded from the proposed Article 4 that the departments in Mostar and Banja Luka would perform any tasks that the Agency does not already perform in Sarajevo, nor that it concerns the "specific nature of certain tasks", Emrić points out.

He states: "Of course, establishing two new departments mentioned above would require significant budget funds, several hundred thousand convertible marks annually: for renting or purchasing office space, for equipping the space with office furniture and materials, operating costs, employee salaries, etc. Given the aforementioned, spending additional budget funds on hiring 8 new employees and other costs is completely unjustified".

"The Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, headed since last year by a director appointed at the proposal of the HDZ, is an extremely important state institution.

The Law on the Civil Service Agency of BiH establishes its primary function to carry out the process of hiring civil servants at the request of institutions, and the Law on Civil Service in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Article 2, Paragraph 1) and the Law on Administration (Article 7) oblige it to respect the provisions on the national structure of civil servants, both within the Agency and in all other state-level institutions.

However, the Agency also violates the aforementioned laws, as the national structure of civil servants within it is as follows: 5 Bosniaks, 6 Croats, 8 Serbs, and 2 Others. In simple terms, currently, only 24% of civil servants in the Agency are Bosniaks, which is less than a quarter, while it should be 50%", it is added.

As he says: "The Agency unsuccessfully tried to justify this situation, so it added employees with secondary vocational education to the number of civil servants. In total, the Agency employs 8 Bosniaks, 9 Serbs, 7 Croats, and 2 Others, civil servants and employees. It is evident that, even in this case, the data for the total number of employees in the Agency is devastating for Bosniaks, only 31%, which is far from the 50% prescribed by Article 7 of the Law on Administration, with 4 Bosniaks missing".

"Even more devastating is the data from the Agency, which claims that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, regarding civil servants employed in state institutions, the goal from Article 2 of the Law on Civil Service in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been achieved, which stipulates that the structure of civil servants broadly reflects the structure of the population according to the last census, as 43% Bosniaks, 36% Serbs, 19% Croats, and 2% Others are employed.

Therefore, according to the Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the goal is achieved when there are 290 fewer Bosniaks, 190 more Serbs, and 140 more Croats, and at the same time, it does not matter that this is contrary to the Constitution and laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Furthermore, contrary to common sense is the opinion of the Agency given by its previous director and implemented in practice for the last ten years, which is that the national structure of civil servants applies to the civil service as a whole, and not to individual institutions. The result of this is that in six institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina based in Mostar, only 28% Bosniaks are employed, i.e., less than a third, while in institutions based in Banja Luka, less than 20% Bosniaks are employed", Emrić stated.

"If the aforementioned absurd opinion of the former director of the Agency continues to be implemented, and everything indicates that it will be, the warning that the next step is the transformation of institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina into purely ethnic ones is justified.

Unfortunately, the recorded employment trend is exactly like that, so for example, in the Ministry of Finance, 46% Serbs are currently employed, in the Ministry of Justice, 37% Croats are employed, and in the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, 56% Bosniaks are currently employed.

Instead of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina urgently reviewing the past work of the Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because the results of its work are catastrophic, an unjustified and unacceptable division into three parts is being approached, where HDZ and SNSD will completely take over the management of employment and personnel policy in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The division of institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina into three parts must not be under the guise of a "compromise" but must be recognized as a deception that will have far-reaching consequences.

We will see if the ministers of the Trojka will agree to this deception and division after the vote at today's session of the Council of Ministers of BiH", Emrić concludes.