Kremić and Čičković give statements at the BiH Prosecutor's Office, will the Census Bureau meeting even take place?

Although the meeting of the Central Census Bureau was scheduled for Wednesday, March 30, 2016, it could be cancelled, the Bosnian news agency Patria has learned. It will be known by the end of the day whether the meeting will take place at all.

After the CPB meetings on March 9 and 14 failed, with no agreement reached on the methodology for publishing the results of the 2013 Census, the entire process and the validity of the census results have been called into question, even if they are eventually published.

That there is work for investigative authorities is also clear from the summons to the directors of the entity statistical institutes of the Federation of BiH and the Republika Srpska, Emir Kremić and Radmila Čičković, to give statements at the BiH Prosecutor's Office, which is checking whether there is criminal responsibility in the entire process if the 50 million KM spent on conducting the 2013 Census is lost.

The greatest share of responsibility lies with the director of the Agency for Statistics of BiH, Velimir Jukić (HDZ BiH), who for days has not scheduled a session of the Central Census Bureau nor taken any action that would lead to the publication of the 2013 Census results, and the deadline for publication on July 1 is approaching.

We remind you that, according to Article 20 of the Law on the Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in BiH 2013, "The Agency for Statistics of BiH establishes a unique and internationally comparable census methodology, with unique definitions of units and characteristics, unique classifications and content of processing tables according to a unique processing program, unique criteria and logic control programs for detecting and automatically correcting errors in census data, and establishes a methodology for controlling data collected by the census."

On the other hand, the entity statistical institutes participate in the development of the methodology with unique definitions of units and characteristics, unique classifications and content of processing tables according to a unique processing program, unique criteria and logic control programs for detecting and automatically correcting errors in census data, and participate in the development of the methodology for controlling the coverage and quality of data collected by the census.

During the visit of the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, it was emphasized that the census results should be published as soon as possible, and this is one of the basic steps on BiH's path to the EU.

The Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdić, also emphasized that the results must be published, but that "politics has meddled and created problems."