Over a million KM spent: FUP requests documentation on delegates and Bradara's advisors

The House of Peoples of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina must provide the Federal Police Administration with documentation on delegates using the separate living allowance and on the employment of advisors to Lidija Bradara, the chairperson of this house.

The Federal Police Administration (FUP) has requested documentation from the House of Peoples of the Federal Parliament, at the request of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office (KS), regarding the employment of Chairperson Lidija Bradara's advisors and the use of separate living allowances by delegates of this house.

The KS Prosecutor's Office opened a case after the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN) published research last month on false accommodation for delegates and the employment of Bradara's eight advisors.

In an urgent letter, the FUP requests the House of Peoples of the Federal Parliament to submit all data on delegates who are exercising the right to separate living. Among other things, certificates proving they meet the conditions for using this right, a list of their allowances, and how the allowances were paid.

The same letter requests the legal regulations, bylaws, and acts under which Bradara's eight advisors were employed, and the regulations governing their salaries and allowances.

CIN journalists discovered that since January 2015, delegates have been contracting low rents for apartments to have more money left from their allowances. These apartments are mostly unfit for living or far from Parliament, and other people lived in some of them. At least half of the delegates do not use the rented apartments at all and, in conversations with CIN journalists, could not say where they are located.

In two and a half years, slightly more than 825,000 marks were spent on separate living costs from family for 35 delegates from this institution.

In another investigation, CIN journalists discovered that Lidija Bradara, chairperson of the House of Peoples of the Federal Parliament, appointed five of her eight advisors in contravention of federal law and regulations.

She was not obliged to announce a competition for employment, but according to the Law on Civil Service of FBiH, advisors must meet the same conditions as candidates for assistant heads of civil service. These conditions include five years of prior work experience, which five of them did not have.

In two years and two months, more than 306,000 KM from the federal budget was spent on the salaries and allowances of Bradara's eight advisors.

(CIN)