How Minister Nikolić Created the Budget: Millions for Some Faculties, 0 KM for Others

By: Amra Vrabac

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The Draft Budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2023, which includes funds for the University of Sarajevo and an increase of about 15.5 million KM, has met with dissatisfaction from several deans of organizational units of UNSA who have not planned any increase in funds for this year. The UNSA budget in 2022 was 125,760,515 KM, and for this year it is 141,341,558 KM.

What is curious is that the proposal submitted by the University of Sarajevo significantly differs from the Draft, which is the proposal of the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Youth of Sarajevo Canton and Minister Aleksandra Nikolić.

In the discussion that preceded the adoption of the Draft in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly on February 8, only a few deputies raised the issue of allocations for the University of Sarajevo, or rather, reductions in certain items. However, a more serious discussion was absent precisely because the deputies did not know that the amount of funds for individual organizational units had been significantly changed.

After the Draft Budget of Sarajevo Canton was adopted, the dean of the Faculty of Dentistry with Clinics, Muhamed Ajanović, whose budget remained at last year's level, reacted publicly. For example, the Faculty of Pedagogy has an increase of almost 700,000 KM planned, the Faculty of Medicine 328,500 KM, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering 1,154,200 KM, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine 1,133,500 KM, and the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences 1,142,300 KM. It should be noted that Nikolić herself comes from the latter faculty.

Ajanović told Patria that he was shocked and taken aback by the proposal that was considered and adopted at the session of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly.

“There were no known criteria on the basis of which this proposal was made, nor an analysis of the budget increase from source 10 for 2023. I think there are indications that this budget increase is not in accordance with Article 167 of the Law on Higher Education of Sarajevo Canton. We will undertake all legal remedies to protect ourselves from obvious injustice, not to use a harsher qualification,” said Ajanović.

Dean Ajanović today submitted a complaint regarding the Draft Budget for 2023 to Minister Nikolić, Minister of Finance Davor Čičić, UNSA Rector Rifat Škrijelj, and the Government of Sarajevo Canton.

He stated that the Faculty of Dentistry has 350 self-financing students who pay tuition fees of 7,000 KM, which amounts to almost 2.5 million KM in the Sarajevo Canton Budget.

Also, when proposing the Budget, additional costs for salary payments due to the increase in the base from 01.01.2023 were not taken into account, all of which is at the expense of the Faculty of Dentistry.

“In the event that our complaint regarding the Draft Budget of Sarajevo Canton is not accepted, we believe that in the fourth quarter of 2023, the Faculty will not be able to fully pay the basic salaries of its employees and cover the basic operating expenses,” he wrote in the letter.

Otherwise, with the adoption of a conclusion in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly on exempting students who have completed their obligations and have an average grade of 8.0, and the collision between the earlier and the new Law on Higher Education of Sarajevo Canton, a specific situation has arisen at the faculties. The law remained legally undefined in these cases, and as Patria learns, the Cantonal Administration for Inspection Affairs also has work to do.

Earlier, the rector of UNSA, Rifat Škrijelj, also spoke about this problem at a press conference at the Rectorate, stating that Minister Nikolić had ignored the Rectorate's letters in order to resolve the situation with students and tuition fees.

A session of the Senate of the University of Sarajevo will be held tomorrow to take a stance on the adopted Draft Budget of Sarajevo Canton, by which several faculties have been left without additional funds for 2023.

The public debate lasts only 20 days, and the plan is for the University of Sarajevo to request additional funds through amendments. However, for some deans, this is not enough because they believe that the adopted Draft has led to an unfair distribution of funds among organizational units.

While some generate their own income and fill the Sarajevo Canton budget, other faculties that are exclusively financed from the Budget are even additionally rewarded.

It remains unclear what motives Minister Nikolić was guided by in drafting the budget. And while problems are piling up in the field of higher education, and diplomas from the University of Sarajevo are being questioned in neighboring Croatia and Slovenia, Nikolić, instead of maximally protecting and supporting UNSA, seems to be doing everything to bring some of the faculties into a difficult situation.