Minister Mesihović at KS Assembly: UNSA Employees are Hostages of a Managerial Regime, KS Government Offered No Solution

(Patria) - Minister of Science, Higher Education and Youth of KS Adna Mesihović reiterated at today's KS Assembly session that the salaries of University of Sarajevo employees will not be paid until the orders are signed by an authorized person.

"Professor Tarik Zaimović has been rejected for registration in the court register as rector. There were several options for how this legal certainty could be resolved. One of them is initiating an administrative dispute and protective measures. To date, the Ministry has not received any of that. The other is convening an extraordinary session of the Senate at which a acting rector would be appointed as stipulated in the UNSA Statute. To date, none of these legal options have been initiated. Yesterday, I initiated an initiative to the Government to authorize someone to sign these salary payment orders, but the Government secretary did not offer a legal solution. I proposed some, but they told me there was no legal basis.

It is still difficult to accept that the 2700 UNSA employees are hostages of a managerial regime that has not yet found a way to ensure legal certainty so as not to lead us into illegal actions. I will not agree to sign any payment orders signed by persons not registered in the court register.

I hope that an extraordinary session of the Senate will be held in the next few days, an acting rector appointed, and the election of a rector initiated in accordance with the law," said Mesihović.

Today, UNSA Rector Tarik Zaimović, together with members of the UNSA Senate, held a press conference where he warned about the actions of the Cantonal Inspectorate and the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Finance, which have no legal basis to annul decisions of the UNSA Senate and the rector, as well as to block salary payments for UNSA employees.

Zaimović stated that there is no order that anyone should sign for salary payments, and that the Minister of Finance is responsible for the calculation and payment of salaries. On the other hand, Zaimović stated that the previous month's salary was also paid even though he was not registered in the court register at that time.