Uk's Government is Shrinking: Will They Leave Voluntarily or Wait to Be Taken Away?

By Amra Vrabac

The reconstruction of the Sarajevo Canton Government was initiated by the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office. This is what humorous social media posts say. However, what sounds like a joke is actually our reality. Uk's government is shrinking.

In the past six months, three ministers in the Sarajevo Canton Government have been arrested for abuse of official position and corruption, one of whom has been dismissed, one minister is in custody, and another minister was handed over to the jurisdiction of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office today.

In the government headed by Nihad Uk, for whom this is his first job, people are already asking themselves who is next and looking at each other with distrust.

These activities are the result of cooperation between the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office, the Sarajevo Canton Anti-Corruption Office, and the MUP Sarajevo Canton Police Administration.
Therefore, Uk's statement today is surprising, as he supports the investigative bodies in their work, emphasizing that they have previously capacitated them, but at the same time insinuating that certain cases are being selected for investigation.

“I expect the competent institutions to prosecute cases of corrupt practices that we, as the Sarajevo Canton Government, have documented and forwarded for processing,” Uk stated.

Uk probably did not mean the arrest of these three colleagues, whom the Government certainly did not report, nor did Uk as Prime Minister, despite media reports about certain irregularities and warnings.

However, regardless of the personnel, material, and financial capacitation of the institutions in Sarajevo Canton, the Sarajevo Canton Government must understand that these institutions have independence from any politics or political body and that they operate accordingly. Not so long ago, police commissioners were replaced because they did not warn about the arrests of party cadres. Everything that the Trojka parties based their narrative on, that things would get better, fundamentally, that a new dawn had broken, and that's it, remains inscribed on some leftover election posters. Whether they will now seek dismissals and accountability in the institutions that documented irregularities, and warned the Government itself about numerous issues in a timely manner, following the example of their bitter enemies from the opposition, will be seen in the coming days.

After the first arrest of Bojan Bošnjak in November last year, Trojka promised a reconstruction of the Sarajevo Canton Government, i.e., a change of ministers whose work was subject to remarks and criticism. And there were such ministers.

Time passed, and the leaders of Trojka, busy with work and staffing at other levels of government, failed to take responsibility for the canton from which their story began. The cadres they left in charge of Sarajevo Canton and gave a free hand to make decisions did not fulfill the task.

After these arrests and scandals that have accompanied the Trojka Government, there is less and less trust among these parties. No one trusts anyone, and tensions are rising. New elections are approaching, numerous promises remain unfulfilled, debts are growing, and public trust is diminishing.

The story about some fallen or half-dead regime that is tripping them up no longer helps Trojka and its cadres. Because it was not that fallen regime that made decisions that left 8,000 people jobless in three months, mostly in Sarajevo, Tuzla, and Zenica-Doboj Cantons. It was not that fallen regime that indebted Sarajevo Canton by hundreds of millions of marks for projects whose contracts are hidden in private apartments and houses, or appointed cadres and directors prone to falsifying work experience, with dubious diplomas who have brought even promising companies to the brink. These are the same cadres who could not provide heating for the citizens of Vogošća for months, who give public money to private companies for work that cantonal companies could do, who have been moving between different positions for years as if they were super-talented for all positions they are assigned to. And we see that they are not.

And let's return to the beginning of this text. The government reconstruction has begun. Whether it will be temporary, halted, or continued is known only to those who are currently racking their brains over the contracts they signed, the payments they made, the projects they worked on... The only question that remains is whether some will leave voluntarily or be taken away?