Modest, Beggarly Draft Budget of Sarajevo Canton

By: Muamer Bandić (Member of the Party for BiH in the KS Assembly)

According to data from the Tax Administration of FBiH for the first nine months of this year, Sarajevo Canton records the highest economic activity and is the absolute leader in the volume of monetary transactions registered through fiscal devices in FBiH with a total share of the Federation of BiH's turnover of exactly 30 percent. Simply put, this shows that almost every third mark in the Federation of BiH is turned over in Sarajevo Canton!

Therefore, I am simply surprised by the modest, hollow, and unserious proposal of the Draft Budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2024, prepared by the KS Government. In this completely anemic Draft Budget, an insufficient level of allocation for capital projects in all areas of activity is noticeable, and there is no allocation for capital projects outside of credit borrowing.

It is evident that a large number of capital projects in Sarajevo Canton are on hold due to unpreparedness, while new borrowings for new unprepared projects are being introduced, which move us away from solving priorities established by existing policies and development strategies. Likewise, it is not an encouraging indicator that annual credit repayment obligations are approaching the legally established limit of 10%, which means that in the coming years, if there is a drop in budget revenues, we can expect Sarajevo Canton to reach a situation where it will no longer be able to borrow for any important capital project.

This is not an encouraging situation given the real infrastructural and developmental needs of Sarajevo Canton in the area of waste disposal and management, where an alternative solution and a new location for the Regional Waste Management Center need to be found. Then, there is the necessity of capital investments in the water supply and sewage infrastructure, for which there are hundreds of projects prepared or in the preparation phase, and which are on hold.

When we consider that the primary road network has not yet been resolved, that health centers and clinics still lack a large number of doctors and medical staff, and that these people work in facilities that require urgent reconstruction. And if anything requires urgent intervention in Sarajevo Canton, it is the transport infrastructure and the healthcare system, and that these problems be solved properly for the sake of our citizens.

Furthermore, investment is needed in the field of upbringing and education, through the renovation and reconstruction of facilities and increased security through fencing and the introduction of video surveillance. We also need the construction of new facilities, especially kindergartens, as the current capacities of public institutions are limited.

Not to mention the judicial institutions and public cultural institutions, many of which still have unresolved status and a continuous problem with the capacity of the spaces in which they operate. It is also necessary to solve the problem of maintaining the facilities where Social Work Centers and other social institutions operate, as well as the accommodation of socially vulnerable citizens of Sarajevo Canton.

Olympic Sarajevo also deserves the construction of a modern national stadium with accompanying sports and recreational facilities. Greater allocations are also necessary for solving the housing issues of young people and the veteran population, as well as investment in industrial zones, in order to enable economic growth and the creation of new jobs. Greater allocations are also needed for security, through investments in the equipment of the Police Administration, in order to establish video surveillance on all major roads and traffic junctions in Sarajevo Canton.

The worst part of all is that the projects are not determined by priorities or by the degree of readiness for implementation, and it would be logical to allocate financial resources in the coming year for resolving property-legal relations for those projects that have already been approved by regulatory plans and are of interest to Sarajevo Canton. If this does not happen, the Party for BiH deputies' club in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly will submit its concrete proposals through amendments.

The part that is commendable is the increase in the base to 3.85 for all employees who are on the Sarajevo Canton budget, but I believe that it should be increased in the future in accordance with the increase in the cost of living.

The KS Government continues with the established practice of allocating more and more financial resources from the budget to cover the operating costs of public companies, which is not a long-term sustainable solution, and unfortunately, the long-announced reforms in this area are not happening, nor are they in sight.

For many public institutions in the areas of social work, social policy, displaced persons and refugees, and the veteran population, it is necessary to regulate bylaws and create strategies that would have measurable results. Also, in the areas of economy and agriculture, support for small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, analyses measuring their effects have not yet been done, and the results of policies in this area must be exact and visible.

Without an increase in the total budget, it is difficult to meet the expectations of the citizens of Sarajevo Canton and solve any of the accumulated problems that hinder normal life and slow down the further urban development of our city. It is particularly insufficient, unambitious, and disproportionate compared to the real economic power and significance of Sarajevo Canton in the economy of our country. The Draft Budget as it currently is, modest and beggarly to such an extent, that the citizens of Sarajevo will be able to cheer tomorrow: Sarajevo is working, and Herzegovina is being built!