How Konaković's strategic partner Marjanović started to demolish the University of Sarajevo while the 'Trojka' is idle

By: Amra Vrabac

Even after a series of mutual accusations and statements, there is no solution in sight for the University of Sarajevo and the payment of November salaries for 2,700 employees.

Rector Tarik Zaimović, whose election was challenged by the Cantonal Administration for Inspection Affairs with the support of the Minister of Higher Education Adna Mesihović (ZNG) during September, although the UNSA Senate elected the rector at the beginning of July, had majority support from UNSA Senate members today during his address to the public on current problems at and around UNSA. Zaimović won in the second round against his opponent Almira Hadžović-Džuvo, receiving 24 votes, while she received 21.

At the same time as Zaimović's address at the Rectorate, Minister Mesihović was speaking in the KS Assembly, stating that she would not approve salary payments for the University of Sarajevo employees and that the employees were hostages of a managerial regime. Thus, a minister in the KS Government, which has founding rights to the public university, attacked the integrity of the University and its leadership.

What is even more devastating is that Mesihović revealed that yesterday the KS Government did not offer a solution for the newly created situation and how to pay salaries for 2,700 employees. Mesihović claims that Zaimović cannot be the signatory of the payment order because his election as rector is disputed and he is not registered in the court register, while he claims there is no need for him to sign anything because the Minister of Finance is authorized to pay salaries. Finally, he posed the question of how the salary was paid a month earlier when Zaimović was also not registered in the court register.

As confirmed by the Municipal Court in Sarajevo to Patria, after the registration of Rector Zaimović as an authorized representative was rejected, the case was sent to the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo for a decision on December 9, following an appeal by UNSA.

However, Minister Mesihović clearly has an agenda she must follow, so from the KS Assembly, she called on the UNSA Senate to hold an extraordinary session and elect an acting rector and initiate a new competition for the election of a rector. Nothing about the Law on Higher Education of KS, nothing about the Statute of UNSA, nothing about the Rules of Procedure of the Senate, what matters is what Mesihović says.

During the day, Professor Vahidin Preljević from the Faculty of Philosophy also commented on this unprecedented situation at the University of Sarajevo.

"Some of us warned in time that the occupation or destruction of the University of Sarajevo was being prepared, that the 'Trojka' had given the authority to an employee of the Croatian government to control the strategic resource of higher education. The vast majority remained thunderously silent. Now that salaries for UNSA employees are being blocked, everyone is grabbing their heads," Preljević stated.

And what is it all about?

Mesihović is a cadre of Damir Marjanović's movement (ZNG), who is the director of an institute in Croatia, but also a current representative in the KS Assembly. Although it was warned in 2023 about possible consequences if Marjanović was given a free hand to manage processes at UNSA, the coalition partners from 'Trojka' blindly followed the leader of the process, Elmedin Konaković, and gave Marjanović two ministries in the KS Assembly – higher education and finance. It is precisely these two ministries that are at the center of the scandal today and are not paying salaries to the employees of the University of Sarajevo.

The UNSA leadership has announced criminal charges, and the Minister of Finance, Afan Kalamujić, bears even greater responsibility because he is violating workers' rights and the collective agreement.

The silence of the 'Trojka' parties regarding this collapse of the University of Sarajevo is concerning. For much smaller issues, they spoke with one voice. However, it seems that no one dares to say what we all see. Things have gotten out of control in Sarajevo Canton. And according to those familiar with the processes, the leader of NIP told those who recently warned about Marjanović that he is his strategic partner and that he has no intention of removing him from the KS Government. Konaković should explain what debts are involved. The problems did not start with the election of Rector Zaimović but much earlier, when former rector Rifat Škrijelj also identified Marjanović by name and surname as an individual who wants to take control of the public university in Sarajevo.

The scandal shaking the KS Government and the University of Sarajevo has shown that there are interest groups that are ready to destroy a 75-year-old university for their political goals.

The pressure to which the University is now subjected, with the annulment of the rector's election and the abolition of the right to salaries, also reveals another dangerous background, which is the endangerment of the University of Sarajevo's property for the benefit of private construction investors.

However, whatever the background of this drama, it will have consequences for the University, its employees, and students.

By acting this way towards education, and now higher education, the KS Government risks facing mass protests from both employees and citizens of KS who will defend public institutions when those who should not are not doing so.