FBiH Government: 150 officials to be laid off, hiring freeze extended until year-end

The Government of the Federation of BiH, at today's session in Sarajevo, considered and accepted the information on the necessary reduction in the number of employees during the preparation of the Budget of the Federation of BiH for 2017.

In this regard, it tasked all budget users to revise their budget requests for 2017 in accordance with the information regarding salaries and employee costs, employer contributions, and other contributions, and to submit the revised requests to the Federal Ministry of Finance.

This ministry will undertake activities to reduce the number of employees in accordance with the analysis during the preparation of the Budget of the Federation of BiH for 2017. The information was prepared based on a detailed analysis of the number planned in the Budget of the Federation of BiH for 2016 and the actual number of employees, taking into account real needs in accordance with the scope of work within budget users.

In accordance with the analyses, the number of employees should be reduced by 150 compared to the number planned in the Budget of the Federation of BiH for 2016. This would ultimately result in savings of around ten million on salaries and employee costs, employer contributions, and other contributions.

The Government of the Federation of BiH, through the Reform Agenda and the Letter of Intent to the International Monetary Fund, stated the reduction of public spending as one of the key structural reforms, including limiting allocations for salaries and employee costs.

The Government of the Federation of BiH has largely implemented the limitation of growth in allocations for salaries and employee costs by introducing a hiring freeze in federal administrative bodies, i.e., federal budget users, which has resulted in multi-million savings in the previous period.

Today, the Government also extended the moratorium on new employment of civil servants, employees, and other staff until December 31, 2016. This applies to federal administrations, federal administrative organizations, federal institutions, and other federal institutions and services, particularly the Public Administration Agency of FBiH, institutions of FBiH established by the Federation of BiH, which exercise public authority and have legal personality.