SDA Presidency: Government is inefficient, the entire BiH Council of Ministers deserves to be dismissed

(Patria) - The SDA Presidency held a session and passed a series of conclusions.

It assesses that the results of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament and the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly in the first year are extremely poor and below all expectations.

- The House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament held only seven regular sessions in a year, of which two were not concluded, and the Rules of Procedure stipulate the obligation to hold at least one session per month. In the first year of the current mandate, fewer laws were adopted than in the first two sessions of the previous convocation.

- The work of this House has been subordinated for months to the intention of the "Troika" to appoint a judge to the Constitutional Court of BiH at the request of the HDZ, who has not a single day of judicial experience. Neither the FBiH Government nor the FBiH Parliament have yet adopted work programs. Such an approach is already reflected in macroeconomic indicators, with a decline in exports, industrial production, and consumption recorded in the FBiH, and an announced increase in electricity prices, which will consequently be a generator of further growth in all other costs.

- The House of Representatives of the BiH PS is also inefficient, having adopted only five out of the planned 50 laws. The first year of the mandate was marked by the decision of the ruling majority to increase salaries for elected and appointed officials by an average of 600 KM. The government at the state level functions only when it suits Milorad Dodik, i.e., when he needs to deliver the takeover of control over state institutions or money for projects in the RS entity.

- The dysfunctionality of the parliaments unequivocally confirms the inability of the government at the state and federal levels to respond to the needs of citizens and to work effectively on fulfilling the conditions that will enable our country to open negotiations with the European Union.

The SDA Presidency believes that the verbal conflicts of representatives of ruling parties, which the public has witnessed in recent weeks, serve solely to conceal the lack of concrete results and the failure to implement reform processes.

This is confirmed by the public admission of the SNSD president, Milorad Dodik, that the NiP president, Elmedin Konaković, is trying to stage a conflict to improve his poor public standing. The atmosphere of unconvincing relaxation of relations was clearly needed only for the purpose of taking over the prime minister and ministerial positions for the leaders of the "Troika" parties, after which everything gradually returned to populist bickering.

The SDA Presidency demands that the competent institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina investigate the claims of SNSD and SDP officials about radicalization, militarization, and the existence of training camps in the RS and FBiH, and, if there is truth to these claims, to take steps within their jurisdiction.

We demand a particularly serious investigation into the claims of the BiH Minister of Defense about the existence of Russian paramilitary camps on the territory of the RS entity. The fact that BiH security agencies, whose control the "Troika" handed over to the SNSD, promptly reacted by denying the claims of the BiH Minister of Defense before any serious verification, and did not do so after the accusations of SNSD leaders and the RS Minister of Internal Affairs about radicalization in the FBiH, raises further doubts about the motives of such actions.

The SDA Presidency believes that voting only on the dismissal of the BiH Minister of Defense is inappropriate, as the entire BiH Council of Ministers deserves to be dismissed.

The SDA Presidency believes that the letter from SNSD deputies and delegates in the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, sent to the US Congress, is based on lies and fabrications about Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks, and SDA, which Serbian nationalists have been recycling for three decades. The SDA Presidency welcomes the reaction of the SDA Caucus in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, which, in a letter sent to several hundred addresses in the US Congress and the European Parliament, completely refuted the falsehoods presented in the SNSD's letter.

The SDA Presidency warns that a month has passed since the European Commission's report, and BiH authorities have done nothing to fulfill the conditions for opening negotiations with the European Union. The European Commission has lowered the bar for fulfilling the conditions that BiH authorities need to meet to the maximum extent, but the inefficient and incapable government is unable to meet even a part of such conditions. SDA notes that the first of the 14 conditions from the European Commission's Opinion is the amendment of the election legislation, and that the package of amendments to the Election Law concerning the transparency and integrity of the election process is the minimum that should be supported by all who truly care about fair elections and BiH's membership in the EU. Therefore, the SDA Caucus will submit a proposal for amendments to the Election Law concerning the integrity of the election process to the parliamentary procedure.

The SDA Presidency assesses the work of the imposed Government of the Federation of BiH as very poor, which for eight months has been almost exclusively engaged in dismissals and appointments, violating legal procedures.

The common denominator of the appointments is that they cater to the HDZ, to whom important sectors are ceded, and incompetent personnel from the "Troika" are appointed to positions. The latest example is the appointments in the management of the Development Bank of FBiH, control over which has been handed over to the HDZ BiH and the godfather of the imposed prime minister, Nermin Nikšić.

The consequence of appointing incompetent individuals to important positions, as was the case in Elektroprivreda BiH, whose leadership was entrusted to the former director of a local utility company, is now being paid by citizens through the announced increase in electricity prices. Citizens will very soon feel the consequences of all other appointments.

The SDA Presidency condemns the dismissal of Hamdija Fejzić from the position of Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Srebrenica and the appointment of an SDS representative to his position. This disrupts the national parity in a municipality where genocide was committed against Bosniaks. The mild reaction of the OHR and the lack of reaction from the member states of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) is disappointing and will only further deepen the problem. The dismissal of Fejzić is a continuation of the attacks on the Bosniaks of Srebrenica, which obliges them to unity and a joint approach in the upcoming local elections.

The SDA Presidency warns that Bosnia and Herzegovina must not become a haven for convicted war criminals and criminals from the region who abuse the citizenship of our country.

The case of Branimir Glavaš and his escape from the Croatian judiciary to Bosnia and Herzegovina has re-actualized the decade-long problem of abuse of dual citizenship. In Croatia and Serbia, there are a large number of individuals who have been convicted of war crimes in the courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and recently, the escape of convicted criminals and criminals from these countries to Bosnia and Herzegovina has intensified.

This clearly indicates that interstate agreements and laws regulating this area must be redefined to narrow the scope for abuse. SDA will insist that this be a topic of parliamentary debate and initiate amendments to regulations that will introduce additional measures to prevent the abuse of dual citizenship.