Forto says ethnic structure is secondary, but data is clear: Bosniaks are missing in the Ministry, BHDCA, ROŽ, BHANSA...

(Patria) - Edin Forto, from the Others category, has been at the helm of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina for more than three years. Insiders claim that nothing has changed for the better in this Ministry regarding the imbalance of Bosniaks since Forto replaced Minister Vojin Mitrović (SNSD) in this position.

In one of his responses submitted to the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, Forto stated that the Law on Civil Service in the Institutions of BiH implies the appointment of the highest-ranked candidate regardless of his ethnic affiliation, and that the Ministry has no legal authority to influence the ethnic composition of employees.

„Competition procedures are based on the principle of expertise and competencies, which means that when selecting candidates, professional abilities are primarily assessed, not ethnic affiliation,“ Forto states.

It is quite interesting how the most successful personnel are always from the ranks of other constituent peoples, but not from the ranks of Bosniaks.

In the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the ethnic structure of employees looks like this: out of 81 civil servants and employees, 33 are Bosniaks, 32 Serbs, 15 Croats, and one from the Others category.

Out of five senior civil servants, three are Croats and two are Serbs. There was a competition procedure for two more positions.

The total number of heads of internal organizational units is 10, of which: five Bosniaks, three Serbs, two Croats.

This does not include employees in the cabinets of the minister and deputy minister, who are mandatorily tied to the minister and deputy.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications of BiH also includes the Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate of Civil Aviation (BHDCA) and the Regulatory Board for Railways of BiH. The seat of BHDCA is in Banja Luka, and the ROŽ BiH is in Doboj.

The director of BHDCA is Zorislav Ivanović, and the director of ROŽ BiH is Tihomir Narić.

The national structure of employees in ROŽ BiH looks like this: out of 11 employees, four are Serbs, two Bosniaks, one Croat, two from the Others category, and two do not declare.

The national structure of BHDCA looks like this: out of 56 employees, 44 are Serbs, four Croats, six Bosniaks, and one from the Others category.

The Communications Regulatory Agency also falls under the purview of this ministry. Draško Milinović has been at the helm of RAK since 2020. We have already published the national structure of employees. In 2024, out of a total of 140 employees in RAK, 57 are Serbs, 48 Bosniaks, 24 Croats, 4 Others, and 7 do not declare. In the Banja Luka organizational unit, there are a total of 21 employees, all of whom are Serbs. Regarding the organizational unit in Mostar, out of 12 employees, ten are Croats and two are Serbs.

When the Council of Ministers of BiH appointed the new Council of BHANSA, Forto proposed his cabinet chief Sanja Škuletić-Malagić as a member, who is also the chairperson of the Council.

Although the national structure of employees in BHANSA, headed by Davorin Primorac, the son-in-law of Dragan Čović, has been requested several times, official data never arrived for these requests, only an explanation that employees do not declare their nationality. This is also one of the indicators that the ethnic structure would show that Bosniaks are again disadvantaged. Likewise, data on the salary amounts of employees were not provided, nor did Director Primorac and his deputy Tomislav Marinković appear at a public hearing before the Commission for Transport and Communications.

Primorac's mandate expired on March 25, and through various administrative exhibitions supported by the BHANSA Council and HDZ BiH personnel, there is still no decision on a new competition for director, for which Primorac, under the current law, would no longer be able to apply.