BiH Armed Forces soldiers in increasingly difficult situation, Defence Law still being violated!

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - It is well known and has long been discussed how soldiers and non-commissioned officers in the Armed Forces of BiH are the most vulnerable category in state institutions, considering the coefficient for salary calculation and the difficulty of their work.

State deputies say they are aware of this problem and that work is being done intensively to resolve it, but there are no concrete developments.

For example, a waiter in state institutions and any other civilian employee in the Ministry of Defence of BiH has a salary much higher than that of a soldier or non-commissioned officer.

A non-commissioned officer with a university degree and 30 years of service receives a salary based on a coefficient of 1.23, which ultimately amounts to 700 KM, which is 137 KM less than even the average net salary in the Federation of BiH!

- Are the authorities aware of the departure of a large number of soldiers from the Armed Forces of BiH due to the incredible salary amount of 600 KM and incredibly inhumane conditions, hundreds and hundreds of unpaid working hours that the Ministry of Defence does not even show on the payroll, such as guard duty, security services, exercises, etc.? - ask members of the Armed Forces of BiH.

The ratio of coefficients between soldiers and non-commissioned officers on one side and officers on the other is incredibly high in favour of the latter, so a non-commissioned officer with a university degree and 30 years of service has a salary about 400 KM lower than a second lieutenant with a university degree and one day of service.

A major problem is also that soldiers and non-commissioned officers in some remote barracks finance food, water and electricity from their own salaries.

On the other hand, staffing in the Armed Forces of BiH is becoming increasingly difficult. According to the adopted rotation, Bosniaks are entitled to the positions of the first man of the Armed Forces and the General Inspector.

The mandate of the current Chief of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of BiH, General Anto Jeleč, and his deputies, Generals Mirko Tepšić and Senad Mašović, expired back in February last year.

Which senior officers will be appointed to the nine rotating command positions in the Armed Forces of BiH was to be decided by the Presidency of BiH by February 1, but that did not happen.

The head of the Joint Staff for the next four years will be a Bosniak.

It is unimaginable that the Defence Law is violated in any country as it is in BiH.

- How is it possible that all criteria and limitations on the duration of mandates are so easily bypassed? The existing generals should leave and new ones should come, but the law and its violation seem to interest no one - warned Dušanka Majkić, a member of the Joint Commission for Defence and Security.