TI BIH publishes database with 432 public institutions: Over 7.5 million annually for directors' salaries

(Patria) - In 432 institutes, agencies, institutions, services, funds, and other public institutions across Bosnia and Herzegovina, 18,435 people are employed, they manage 1.7 billion KM annually, and the largest amounts are spent precisely on employee salaries.

Preliminary data published by Transparency International in BIH in the first database of public institutions in BIH show that directors' and management board members' salaries most often go up to the legally allowed maximums, and some institutions have granted even greater rights to directors through collective agreements. The data is not complete because 133 institutions refused to provide some of the requested data, including the number of employees, budget amount, composition, and remuneration of management and supervisory boards.

Institutions most often refused to provide directors' salaries, and the submitted data shows that the highest remuneration is received by the heads of institutions founded by the Government of Sarajevo Canton, which even legally[1] capped these salaries at three average salaries in FBiH in the last three months. According to the latest data from the Federal Bureau of Statistics, these salaries should not exceed 2,328 KM, but some institutions have nevertheless granted greater rights to their directors through collective agreements.

Thus, the salaries of the deans of the Faculty of Criminal Justice, Criminology and Security Studies (4,504 KM), the Faculty of Dentistry (4,173 KM), the director of the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo (4,149 KM), the Academy of Fine Arts (3,923 KM), the director of the Institute for Occupational Medicine and Sports Medicine of Zenica-Doboj Canton (3,708 KM), the Institute for Emergency Medical Aid of Sarajevo Canton (3,473 KM) significantly exceed the amounts of three average salaries in FBiH. As for Republika Srpska, according to the data received so far, the director of Kozara National Park has by far the highest salary, amounting to 3,053 KM, managing 54 employees.

It should be noted that these are preliminary data and that numerous institutions have refused to publish directors' salaries, citing the Law on Personal Data Protection, although this data should be public according to the stance of the competent Personal Data Protection Agency of BIH. Numerous absurd responses and arbitrary interpretations of the law have been received by TI BIH in the past period, in which public institutions have refused access to this information. For example, the response from the Bosnian Cultural Center in Kalesija states that they cannot provide data on the director's salary because it is secret, but they can say that it is less than 2,000 KM, while the Public Institution Center for Rehabilitation of Hearing and Speech RS stated that they cannot provide the requested data without the approval of the line ministry.

Regarding management and supervisory boards, the data received by TI BIH so far shows that in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the highest remuneration is received by members of the Supervisory Board of the Institute for the Care of Mentally Disabled Children Pazarić, which recently came into the public spotlight due to the catastrophic conditions in which the children live. It is not known how many times per month the management and supervisory boards meet, but the presidents receive a fee of 745.60 KM. In addition to the president, the Management Board has four more members, and the Supervisory Board has two members with a fee of 559.20 KM each per month, so these two categories cost the Institute over 58 thousand KM annually in net amount.

In addition to this, an exception is the case of the Health Insurance Fund of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, where the president of the Management Board receives a fee of 600 KM per month, while in the rest of BIH, these fees generally do not exceed 500 KM. This is also the maximum fee amount allowed to all public institutions in Republika Srpska by a conclusion of the RS Government from 2014. Although there are rare institutions that do not pay members of their management boards or pay them per session or 20-30 KM monthly, most of them have set maximum amounts of 500 KM or 400 KM, regardless of the size and importance of the institution.

Whether it is Vode Srpske, the Institute of Public Health of RS, which have over 200 employees, or the Agency for Certification, Accreditation and Improvement of Healthcare Quality of RS, which has 12 employees, the remuneration of Management Board members goes up to a maximum of 500 KM per month. An interesting example is the Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Republika Srpska, which awarded its Management Board members a monthly fee of 200 KM, even though it did not have the money in its budget for it and did not receive approval from the line ministry, which led to a court dispute.

It should be taken into account that management boards rarely meet and that the remuneration in most institutions is the same regardless of the number of sessions.

It is also noticeable that some individuals hold positions in multiple management and supervisory boards, and there are numerous examples where elected officials and members of parliament manage public institutions and practically submit work reports to "themselves". The data published by TI BIH in the first register of public institutions currently includes the composition of management bodies, their remuneration, and the budget amount, and in the coming period, numerous health institutions, as well as those that have refused to provide this data so far, will be included in the register.

As part of the research, TIBIH has so far sent about 200 reminders to institutions that have not provided the requested information, as well as 25 appeals and two lawsuits against public institutions that have partially or completely refused access to this information.