One person in 49 working bodies in a year, received 27,505 KM in compensation

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The Office for the Audit of Institutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been pointing out the problem of compensation payments for employees of federal ministries for years. Namely, payments are not in accordance with the Decree of the Government of FBiH, which stipulates that compensation is paid only for work performed outside working hours. Also, auditors found that additional compensation was paid even though it concerned regular activities of employees for which they regularly receive salaries.

Furthermore, ministries do not act in accordance with the Decree even when appointing commissions. Although the Decree clearly defines that one person can be appointed as chairman or member of a maximum of two permanent working bodies, one of the ministry employees was engaged in as many as 49 working bodies in 2018 and received additional compensation in the amount of 27,505 KM annually. Also, the violation of the Decree continued in 2019, where some employees were engaged in 11 working bodies, and for their work in commissions, in addition to regular salaries, 30,049 KM was paid individually.

The recommendations for ministries to ensure that compensation payments for work in commissions and working bodies are in accordance with the Decree have been repeated in the report of the Office for the Audit of Institutions of FBiH for years, however, ministries continue the years-long repetition of the established irregularities.

On this occasion, the Centers for Civil Initiatives (CCI) call on federal ministries to correct the irregularities in accordance with the audit reports and to consistently apply the Decree on the manner of establishment and determination of compensation for the work of working bodies established by the Government of FBiH and the heads of federal civil service bodies for engagement and work in commissions.

For the purpose of more transparent spending of budget funds, ministries must review the justification of compensation payments to employees for work in commissions for tasks within the competence of the ministry, clearly establish the procedure for participation in commissions during working hours, and organize employee engagement in accordance with the Decree of the Government of FBiH.