BECAUSE THERE IS NO MONEY Minister of Finance requests urgent budget rebalance of KS, Uk's thrifty planning and management also disappeared

By Amra Vrabac

When on the second to last day of 2023, in the late hours after midnight, the KS Assembly adopted the budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2024, worth 1,530,505,602 KM, which is even larger than the state budget, no one from the KS Government thought that problems with money would arise as early as the beginning of summer.

Before the budget adoption, KS Prime Minister Nihad Uk addressed the deputies in the KS Assembly. He optimistically announced prosperity and boasted about thrifty planning and management. And now, at the end of September, there is no money. This was recently pointed out by the Rector of the University of Sarajevo, Rifat Škrijelj, who told Patria that there will not be enough money for the salaries of UNSA employees for the last three months of 2024 precisely because someone poorly planned the financial needs of an institution with 2,700 employees.

That there is no money can be seen from several examples. First, as early as the beginning of this year, the KS Prime Minister and Minister of Communal Economy Bojan Bošnjak announced that there was no additional money for the payment of another part of the subsidy for young people to buy their first property, as they only received 4,800 KM each, which is the lowest amount paid since the project began. Then came the union requests. The Union of Primary Education and Upbringing of KS requested the payment of aid according to the Decree of the FBiH Government but did not receive it. Announced protests in May were stopped by police repression, but dissatisfaction grew.

Other unions also came forward. Since June, the Union of Healthcare Workers of KS has been demanding an increase in the hourly wage. Prime Minister Uk categorically stated that there was no money in the KS Budget. However, the Minister of Health Enis Hasanović (SDP) addressed the workers and clearly stated that there was money in the KS Health Insurance Fund, from which healthcare salaries are paid. Mass protests last week and whistles in front of the KS Government caused a reaction. A session of the KS Government followed, and an agreement was reached to increase the hourly wage. It was not the 3.70 KM requested by the Union, but they accepted the offer of 3.40 KM.

Naša stranka was outvoted at that KS Government session, and they told their coalition partners that they were populists and were distributing money before the elections, while SDP, NIP, and ZNG voted for the increase.

It is precisely from ZNG that the Minister of Finance of KS, Afan Kalamujić, comes, who, after this decision, announced on social networks and explained the conditions under which he agreed to support the request of healthcare workers.

“I supported the proposal of the ministers from the “trojka” and the agreement with the healthcare unions regarding the increase in the hourly wage. As a person, I stand by the fact that people who care for the lives of Sarajevo citizens must be adequately paid. However, that support was clearly conditioned on two important things that I clearly stated at the government session.

The first is that healthcare workers, with their effort, work, expertise, and dedication in the fight for the health of all our fellow citizens and in such a necessary reform of the healthcare system, must justify this salary increase, which comes from the money of taxpayers who are very often their patients.

The second is that our partners in power must urgently accept the situation in which they will have to implement an urgent rebalance of the 2024 budget (which I have been requesting for some time) and prepare for the fact that in the 2025 budget, the first one to be created under my supervision, many “popular things” will be replaced by essential ones.

By fulfilling these two conditions, both healthcare workers and colleagues from the Government will prove that this was not just a pre-election maneuver but, as they presented it, a strategic move that benefits all citizens of Sarajevo Canton,” Kalamujić stated.

The truth is that Kalamujić was appointed Minister of Finance in November 2023, and the deadline for interventions in the budget, which was already prepared, was short. During the public debate, numerous requests for additional money arrived, and the budget was adopted. Poor planning, fulfilling wishes, “popular things,” introducing new categories into rights, and repaying loan installments could not be supported by the existing budget.

Although Kalamujić is requesting a budget rebalance, which the FBiH Government, from whose budget part of the money flows into the Sarajevo Canton budget, must also urgently do due to the financial deficit, it is clear that the parties of the trojka and their partners are avoiding it. However, turning a blind eye to the financial collapse will not lead to a solution. From the rebalance of the KS budget, according to the initiative adopted in the KS Assembly, the second part of the subsidy for young people was supposed to be paid.

Indebtedness is also growing in Sarajevo Canton, reprograming of previous loans is being done, interest rates are being attempted to be fixed, but there is less and less money in the budget.

Today, seven unions have sent a request to Uk for a salary increase from the beginning of 2025, as well as the payment of aid according to the new FBiH Government Decree, given that the cost of living is constantly rising. They have given Uk a seven-day deadline to respond to the letter.

The next month will be crucial. Both because of the election results, which the current government is clearly awaiting, and because of the possible reconstruction of the KS Government, in which there will no longer be a place for ministers from ZNG.

However, whoever becomes the Minister of Finance will have to grapple with the lack of money. The song spins in my head: Because there is no money, because there is no money, because there is no money, because there is no money, no, no...