How citizens' money is spent in the HJPC: Tegeltija has two drivers and 177,000 KM for travel

The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH, headed by Milan Tegeltija, a figure considered one of the most controversial in this sector in Republika Srpska, spent 177,000 KM last year on domestic and international travel expenses alone, reports the Patria News Agency.

In another year of the country's worst financial crisis, when authorities daily urged ordinary people to tighten their belts, the President of the HJPC decided that one driver was not enough for his cabinet, so he hired two drivers for his needs.

These facts are just two among a series of data on the arrogant behavior of state officials, appointees, and employees, which are duly listed in the latest audit report of the Office of the Auditor General of Public Institutions in BiH.

Although they noted excessive spending on internal travel, a problem they had proposed to resolve the year before and were not heeded by the HJPC, the state auditors ultimately gave this judicial institution a positive assessment of how it spends state money.

Of course, this time too, they only mildly suggested that travel expenses be reduced, and if they do not do so, it will be up to the auditors to do so next year, and so on, year after year, because paper tolerates everything, and their reports in any case represent the fulfillment of mere legal form for which almost no one has ever faced any serious sanctions.

Milan Tegeltija, Character and Work

Milan Tegeltija was appointed President of the HJPC in mid-last year. Even before this, he held top judicial positions, serving as President of the Basic Court in Banja Luka, and before that, head of the Special Prosecutor's Office of Republika Srpska.

Although non-governmental organizations have repeatedly pointed fingers at his work and actions publicly since the beginning of Milan Tegeltija's career rise, the advancement of this man, born in 1971, towards the very top has always been unstoppable.

His highly-rated career was not hindered in any way by accusations that as president of the Basic Court in Banja Luka, he was responsible for 40,000 unresolved cases, that court proceedings in this institution lasted ten years or more, disregard for the principle of urgency, influence on judges in certain cases, destruction of evidence from court files, and public association with people from the qualified criminal milieu.

His appointment to the HJPC position last year was met with very sharp condemnation from a large "non-governmental" segment of the public, who generally assessed this appointment as a complete fiasco of the BiH judiciary in the true sense of the word.

The following data confirms this fiasco. Although the BiH Budget Law stipulates that the HJPC can employ 94 employees, 84 funded from the budget and ten employed on institutional projects, the HJPC employs 141 people, of whom 85 are on the budget, and as many as 56 are funded by projects from donations.

Everyone Received Holiday Bonus

The budget of this institution amounted to 8.5 million KM annually, of which 3.2 million KM were allocated for the salaries of HJPC employees.

In addition to this, it is worth mentioning that in another year of crisis, often presented to the public with the insidious phrase "year of challenges," the HJPC spent 69,225 KM solely on holiday bonuses for employees. The amounts of holiday bonuses paid ranged between 612 and 1,967 KM, while those with the lowest coefficients received 300 KM for holiday bonuses. This is precisely how public funds are spent in Tegeltija's HJPC, and this is just at the very beginning of his "supreme" mandate, writes Magazin Istina.