National Assembly of Republika Srpska adopted only 16 out of 97 laws in half a year

Centri civilnih inicijativa (CCI) presented today the monitoring of the work of the Government and the National Assembly of Republika Srpska in the first six months of 2017, writes Patria News Agency.

Probably the most important event in Republika Srpska in the first 6 months of 2017 was the prevention of the sale of the iron ore mine "Ljubija" according to the plan of the RS government. This is perhaps the first serious demonstration of strength and self-awareness by the National Assembly, which, unfortunately, mostly acts as a service rather than a controller and corrector of the executive power, which is actually one of its constitutional functions.  

The NA RS recorded the lowest productivity rate in its current term in the first half of 2017. Only 79 measures were considered, which is almost half of the results from the second half of 2015.

The low implementation of laws is particularly concerning. With 19 adopted laws, the NA RS achieved one of the worst results in the last 7 years. It is twice as bad as the results from the second half of 2015 and three times worse than the number of adopted laws in the second half of 2011 (when as many as 62 laws were adopted in 6 months). In addition to the 19 adopted laws, another 11 laws were accepted in draft form and sent for further procedure. In total, 42 fewer laws were adopted in the first two and a half years of the current term compared to the first two and a half years of the previous term.

Of the measures planned for implementation in the first 6 months of 2017, only 37% were realized, and less than a fifth of the total annual plan. Specifically, only 19% of the planned 171 measures were finally realized. And only 16% of the 97 planned laws. The NA entered the second half of the year with as many as 86 unadopted laws. If we exclude August as a month of collective annual leave for the national deputies, the NSRS would have to realize as many laws each month in the second half of the year as it did in total in the first half of this year to fulfill the planned Work Program for 2017. Moreover...

All adopted laws are carryovers from previous years – laws that were planned but not implemented, and were simply carried over as obligations to this year's program. Not a single one of the 53 new laws in the Work Program for 2017 was adopted. (Only 2 were accepted in draft form)

There is also a significant backlog in the implementation of strategies. Of the 19 strategies planned by the NA RS Work Program for 2017 (10 of which were to be adopted in the first half of this year), only 3 were adopted, and another 4 were accepted in draft form and sent for further procedure.

The NA RS has not found a permanent solution for the constant delays in adopting its annual work program – which CCI has persistently pointed out – by improving its efficiency, timely starting implementation, increasing accountability, and introducing sanctions for untimely fulfillment of obligations, but by voting for regulations that will simply legalize the practical convenience in work. The new Rules of Procedure of the NA, in fact, sets the deadline for adopting the work program for a given year not as the end of the previous year, but as the end of the first quarter of the year to which the program refers.

Therefore, the Assembly has allowed itself to work for the first three months of the year without an adopted annual (!) work program, and for all of this to be "according to regulations" (as our politicians like to say). However... The annual work program should be adopted before the beginning of the year to which it applies. All other solutions, including the current one, lack logical basis. And they further negatively affect the results of the NA.  

In the first half of 2017, the NA RS did not hold any special sessions to discuss issues of key importance for the citizens of RS. There were no special, thematic sessions dedicated to the extremely difficult situation in healthcare. There were no special sessions on the state of the economy, on the protection of domestic production, on the state of the real sector, on corruption, on the collapse of the banking system in RS, on education, natural population growth and the departure of young people... For comparison, in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of FBiH, as many as 4 thematic sessions were held in the first half of 2017 – on air pollution, on population emigration, on the state and prospects of the wood processing industry, and on the state of agriculture in FBiH.

Although the level of law implementation is very low, some very important laws were adopted in the first half of 2017. We highlight: the Law on Protection of Persons Reporting Corruption, the Criminal Code of RS, the Law on the Tax System, the Law on Higher Education, the Law on Insurance Companies, the Law on General Product Safety in RS, and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Producer Protection.

According to data from the Constitutional Court of BiH, the NA RS is on the list of institutions that have not yet implemented all decisions of this court made based on requests for an assessment of constitutionality. However, contrary to popular belief, the institutions of power in RS are not an exception in this regard, and according to data from the end of last year, there was only one unimplemented decision.

In the first half of 2017, the continuous decline in government productivity, which characterized the previous year, was halted. 1411 measures considered in this half-year are still below the average for the current term. But they are also above the average of the previous term.

In the structure of considered measures, the number of particularly significant ones, which systematically and long-term regulate certain areas and solve some problems, is very low. Various solutions, decisions, consents, and conclusions represent 56% of the total measures considered in the first half of 2017. Information, reports, plans, and programs account for another 31%. On the other hand, the share of laws in the total mass of considered items during the observed period is only 2%. And strategies 0.7%. 

The number of laws established in the first half of 2017 is one of the lowest achieved by the RS government in the last 7 years. 25 established laws (18 in proposal and 7 in draft) is twice less than the results in the previous, second half of 2016. It is also less (by approx. 20%) than the number of laws established by the Government of the Federation of BiH during the observed period.

The RS Government leads in the implementation of strategies. With 7 established strategies (6 in proposal, 1 in draft) in the first 6 months of 2017, the RS Government achieved a twice better result than the FBiH Government in the same period.

We get a true impression of the work done in the first half of 2017 by looking at the work program and its implementation. Of the 439 planned measures, only 169, or 38.5%, were realized. 

The implementation of the most significant measures is even weaker. Only 22 out of 83 planned laws (26.5%, therefore) and 6 out of 21 planned strategies (28.6%) were established. Comparison with the results of the implementation of planned legislative obligations from previous years shows that the results achieved in the first 6 months of 2017 are the worst, both nominally and proportionally, in the last 7 years.

The Work Program of the RS Government was again adopted with a significant delay – on April 11, 2017 – thus violating the government's rules of procedure, which precisely define the obligation to adopt the program for a given year before the end of the previous year. Moreover, the failure to adapt the content of the Work Program to the fact of significant delay in its adoption resulted, as with the NA, in a structural error in the Government's Work Program, which, among other things, called into question the credibility of statistical data on its implementation.

Specifically, although adopted in the fourth month, the RS Government's Work Program for 2016 includes a plan for the 1st quarter. With as many as 145 different measures. This means that the "plan" for that period, which was in the past at the time of the Work Program's adoption, contains a third of all measures included in the Program. An even bigger problem is that measures that were implemented before the Program was adopted were included in the Program, which by definition is a work plan for the next period. Thus, the Program was, in fact, almost 20% realized at the moment of its adoption. 

The government also fulfilled its obligations regarding the adoption of the budget for 2017 with delays and violations of the Law on the Budget System of RS, thus causing delays for the NA in fulfilling its obligations. The Government did not establish the Budget for 2017 in draft form at all, as prescribed by the Law, but adopted it in proposal form through an urgent procedure, and instead of by December 1, it did so on December 13, 2016.

The RS Government violates the Rules of Procedure of the NA RS in the segment of responding to deputies' questions within the prescribed period. Opposition deputies have continuously pointed out this issue, and the Speaker of the NSRS has acknowledged they are right and asked the RS Government to act in accordance with the Rules of Procedure. It should be noted that this phenomenon was not as frequent in some earlier periods.

The RS Government continues to violate the Law on Gender Equality in BiH. Women hold less than a quarter of the seats in the RS Government (4 out of 17), which violates the Law stipulating that the minimum representation of the underrepresented gender is 40%. And that everything else is considered discrimination, the elimination of which is mandated by this law.

The findings of the main service for the audit of the public sector in RS showed significant financial indiscipline which ultimately led to resignations, but not of those responsible for the detected shortcomings. Of the 16 ministries of the RS Government, only 3 operated in accordance with financial rules. The RS Government did not objectively present the deficit situation, and when the Chief Auditor pointed out this anomaly, strong political pressure followed, which ultimately led to his resignation, which will be discussed in the NSRS. 

Therefore, instead of accountability of ministers and the Government, and their resignations – which is common practice in developed democracies in such situations – we are witnessing inappropriate, worrying, and unacceptable political pressure on an institution whose work requires independence from political influences. Those accused of negligent work and violations of regulations cannot defend themselves by accusing the Auditor and his alleged manipulation by the opposition, but by possibly allowing an independent foreign audit that will not be under anyone's influence.

The NA RS must find the strength within itself to protect the institution of the Chief Auditor. And to condemn the political pressure on the work of independent institutions whose task is to protect the system and the citizens of this country. And, if the Government claims the Auditor is wrong, to decide that a reputable international auditing firm be engaged as soon as possible to verify the findings of the RS Auditor, i.e., the work of the Government of Republika Srpska.