Minister Mesihović requested a fiscal assessment from UNSA for hiring 150 students, yet claims it is a 'non-existent project'

(Patria) - On 3 November 2023, the University of Sarajevo submitted to the Government of Canton Sarajevo, Prime Minister Nihad Uk, and Minister of Science, Higher Education and Youth Pavle Ksrtić the project 'Employment and Retention of Promising Young People in Canton Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina: Hiring the 150 Most Successful Students at the University of Sarajevo', and then the same project was also submitted on 31 January 2024 to the new Minister of Higher Education Adna Mesihović (ZNG). The reconstruction of the Government of Canton Sarajevo, i.e., the appointment of the new Government of Canton Sarajevo, took place on 15 November 2023.

In her reaction yesterday to the press conference held on Friday, 19 July by UNSA Rector Rifat Škrijelj and several members of the UNSA Senate, Minister Mesihović stated that the project to hire the 150 most successful students does not exist and that she could not have stopped it.

"The process of admitting 150 students to UNSA does not exist and has never been officially initiated by any serious document from the Rectorate of the University of Sarajevo! An informal meeting (more precisely a coffee) of the outgoing rector with the previous minister at the end of his mandate, where this idea was only briefly mentioned, is all that was done before my arrival as minister. Upon learning of such a thing from the media, I immediately initiated official activities in that direction. I organised a meeting with representatives of the UNSA Rectorate and requested that the Rectorate, as the initiator of that idea, prepare a clear and precise explanation of the idea. To date, such a document has not been submitted! Therefore, I could not stop something that was never even initiated," Mesihović stated in her reaction.

However, documents that Patria had access to tell a completely different story. In a letter that Rector Rifat Škrijelj sent to Minister Mesihović at the end of January this year, it is very clearly stated that they are submitting the project proposal that they had already submitted to the Government and the previous minister in November.

„The University of Sarajevo believes that for the future success and development of our public university, as well as the development of our country, it is of crucial importance to provide opportunities and possibilities for young people in pursuing an academic career," Škrijelj stated.

That correspondence did exist between Rector Škrijelj and Minister Mesihović is also shown by a letter in which the minister, on 5 February this year, requested a fiscal assessment form for the project to hire the 150 most successful UNSA students.

The University of Sarajevo submitted the requested document to her on 20 February 2024.

This was followed by new correspondence between the minister and the University of Sarajevo, which in March submitted an updated fiscal assessment for the project, taking into account that the new Collective Agreement came into force on 14 March 2024.

„Considering that the fiscal assessment form covers the current year plus the next two years, i.e., a total three-year period, below we provide information in accordance with your request for an assessment over a four-year period, which amounts to 22,321,050 KM. We believe that this updated fiscal assessment will enable the Ministry to obtain a complete and transparent picture of the financial aspects of the project, thereby ensuring its successful implementation," Rector Škrijelj stated in his letter from March this year.

If she believed that this project should be implemented through the Employment Service, then she should have informed both the University of Sarajevo and the Government of Canton Sarajevo, which is the largest financier of UNSA.

However, the 150 most successful students will apparently not yet get the opportunity to establish an employment relationship at the university where they were among the best and who chose to stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The only question is, with such a stepmotherly government, until when?

Minister requested fiscal assessment for 'non-existent project'