Public Address by Five Political Entities to the Prime Minister and the KS Government

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Five political entities with representatives in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly - People and Justice, Club of Independent Representatives, SDP BiH, Our Party, and NBL have publicly addressed the KS Government due to its "ignoring all previous proposals," according to a statement from the five mentioned entities. 

"Today marks exactly one month since a state of natural disaster was declared due to the global Coronavirus pandemic, but the inertia you have shown over the past month represents a significant problem and causes fear and insecurity among both us representatives and the citizens of KS. In all your public appearances, you have repeated that you are waiting for measures and activities from the Federal Crisis Staff or the FBiH Government. We remind you once again that the Constitution of FBiH grants broad powers to cantons and recognizes their differences and specificities. We remind you that we requested two emergency sessions of the KS Assembly, one on the general situation in Sarajevo Canton and another on measures to support the economy. You rejected both proposals and left us representatives and citizens of Sarajevo Canton without timely information about the activities you are undertaking," the public address states.

The mentioned political entities add: "Over the past month, we have been more than a fair opposition without much public criticism, but with many concrete proposals that we sent to you, which you, to our regret and disappointment, ignored.
It is evident that you have taken our cooperation, support in this crisis situation, and constructive proposals lightly and disregarded them. We tried to put politics aside, to make this a period where we must all work together, where there is no position or opposition. You have responded to such an approach, among other things, by perfectly applying the slogan 'life must not stop' by changing management structures in numerous institutions and companies, many of which have no connection to the current circumstances and the fight against the epidemic."

"The culmination of these appointments is political bargaining, where you placed a BOSS party official at the head of the Health Center, on the front line of defense against COVID-19, presumably to repay that party for its support of the Government. For you, life has not stopped even in certain departments, institutions, and companies that have no connection to the pandemic, where you have also approved the hiring of new employees, nor where you have decided to remove top experts because they hold different opinions. We believe you have not responded to the key challenges in the areas of health, economy, finance, labor and social policy, culture, and sports. We still do not see planned concrete measures for the problems in public utilities. Therefore, we ask you to answer the following questions within an urgent timeframe," the statement says. 

We are presenting the questions in full: 

HEALTHCARE

- What is the algorithm (or algorithms) mentioned in the statements of government officials, who prescribed it, who is responsible for its accurate implementation, and are there any shortcomings in its application? Why is it not publicly disclosed in the interest of clearly presenting the current rights of patients and healthcare workers in its application, and what is the patient's pathway in these conditions?
- What is the exact amount of budget funds spent so far on equipment procurement? What protective equipment for healthcare workers has been procured and where has it been distributed? How much money has been spent on procuring medicines intended for the treatment of the infectious disease caused by the COV 2 virus, what is the exact number of respirators purchased, and how much did they cost?
- What is the genetic testing strategy in Sarajevo Canton? Why is the number of tests in KS very low, why have you not respected the WHO recommendations regarding testing KS citizens?
- Why have you, regardless of the initiative of the crisis staff and the decisions of the KS Government to engage private institutions in the testing process, prevented the private sector from conducting Coronavirus tests? What are the capacities of the public health sector for Coronavirus testing, can they meet the real needs?
- Why have hospitals almost completely stopped providing services to patients not infected with Coronavirus? KCUS and the General Hospital have received their full allocation of funds from ZZOKS, as in normal conditions, and there are few patients in the hospitals. At the same time, doctors are not being paid for on-call duty. Donations in cash and goods are arriving at the institutions. Where is the ZZO money being spent?
- Why are you not defending healthcare workers, who have been under constant attack by high-ranking political officials of the ruling parties in the last ten days? Healthcare workers are the first line of defense against Coronavirus and must be protected.
- Why are you forgetting children with developmental disabilities again – for example, what about the missing medications – depakin, diazepam, suppositories, basic medications for stopping epileptic seizures?

ECONOMY

With your inadequate actions in supporting the economy, you have triggered an avalanche of job losses, which will surely have unforeseeable consequences in the near and distant future.
- Do you know that as of April 15, there are 60,420 people registered with the Employment Service, which is 2,391 more people compared to March 18?
- Do you know that for this number of new unemployed, we will need approximately 900,000 KM for benefit payments, and in the coming weeks, a further sharp and large increase in unemployment is expected, which could also affect the security situation in Sarajevo Canton.
- What have you undertaken in the field of agriculture, given that the deadlines for spring sowing are approaching, and after the epidemic, a difficult economic period can be expected, during which it will be necessary to feed the most vulnerable segments of the population?
- Why were activities that suffered huge losses due to crisis staff bans excluded from the public call for the allocation of budget funds for the payment of part of the salaries for March 2020 (hotels, travel agencies, old crafts, car rental services, preschool institutions, dental laboratories, driving schools, transport and auxiliary transport activities, reservation services, services for organizing fairs and similar events, cultural associations, sports clubs, etc.)?
- Why have you not reacted to the concrete proposals of the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board for assistance to hoteliers and tourism workers, and the "Butmir" Agricultural Estate for initiating activities in mass agricultural production?
- Why do we still not have a proposal for even short-term measures, let alone medium-term and long-term measures for economic recovery?

FINANCES

- Why is the KS budget rebalance still not on the agenda of the KS Assembly?
- Why is there no law on savings?
- How do you plan to compensate for the drop in revenue in public institutions that generated significant income (JU Children of Sarajevo, institutions in the field of culture, institutions in the field of social economy)?
- We know that public utility companies have allowed deferral of utility payments with their provisions, which will lead to a reduction in income in the public utility sector. How will you maintain the liquidity of these companies?

- Why did you pay full amounts to political parties before taking any action to help the economy?

SOCIAL POLICY

- What to do in case a child with disabilities has their disability status expiring?
Respecting the recommendations of the authorities regarding visits to healthcare institutions in cases of extreme necessity, it is not possible to perform special examinations of children with disabilities, and therefore not to submit the necessary documentation. Does this mean that these beneficiaries will remain without disability benefits and care from others? For many families, this is the only source of income. Instructions on how to overcome this problem have been missing, even though we have submitted this representative question.

"Given that we are in a crisis situation, we ask you, Prime Minister, to properly inform and clarify to the public who are all the key and responsible persons in charge of decision-making in healthcare, economy, public utilities, security (by department). To state whether you will hold them accountable or dismiss them for the omissions made in the past period? We are aware that you are exposed to pressure coming from the headquarters of the ruling coalition parties, but we are not sure how long you will tolerate and resist them before you dare to offer your resignation. We remind you once again that, over the past month, we have offered concrete measures and answers for most of the detected problems, which you have ignored," stated the Club of Independent Representatives, NBL, Our Party, SDP BiH, and People and Justice.