AIM Pre-Election Survey: Work of Parliament in B&H Federation

Spending DM 10 million for 60 days work in two years!

AIM Sarajevo, October 31, 2000

On November 11, citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina will vote and choose their representatives in the highest authorities in the next two years. Practically the same faces are singing the same tune from pre-election rallies and party posters and will try to get elected promising to be much better than before if they keep their post! Allegedly, they were unable to do much in the last ten years because of the war - which as it is widely known, the authorities are not in the least responsible for - but will do their best and exert themselves to rectify all that in the coming period. The only thing citizens have to do is elect them. And, naturally, pay a bundle for that!

According to figures, this is how much the citizens have paid and what they've got in the last two years of a decade-long rule of mononational parties: in the first nine months of this year delegates of the Parliament of the B&H Federation have spent almost 4 million convertible marks, i.e. KM 3,901,802.98! According to a simple analogy (four million in nine months) it can be concluded that during 22 months of their delegate term they have spent about KM 10 million! Perhaps that is not too much in view of the fact that apart from some 100 employees in technical services, the Federal Parliament has over 200 delegates in both Houses, but...

During two-year term, delegates of the House of Representatives held only 15 regular and six extraordinary sessions, while representatives in the House of Nations had 11 regular and six extraordinary session! When number of days in session are added, it turns out that delegates to the Federal House of Nations have worked 33 days and those to the House of Representatives "as many as" 60 days in two years! And another thing – some of the mentioned "work days" lasted only 15 minutes - just long enough to determine that they lacked a quorum so that they could go home or several hours when, for example, a session started at 5 p.m. and ended at 7,15 p.m.

Now, what have the citizens of B&H Federation paid for with millions of KM? Just for the sake of information - each pfening spent on the work of Parliament (not only of B&H Federation, but any other) comes directly out of the pockets of B&H citizens each time they pay for any item - bread, milk, newspapers, frankfurters, chocolate, bananas, theatre or movie ticket, books, shoes, rollers, etc. Anything at all! At the same time - party representatives become deputies or delegates in Parliament Houses each time citizens go to the polls and round a number in front of a party's or candidate's name! In other words - what do they get?

Numerical indicators show that, for example, in two years the House of Nations reviewed 170 items of the agenda and adopted 92 laws which were in different stages of adoption (either drafts or bills), 18 decisions which are under its sole authority and 14 decisions which it brings together with the House of Representatives. (At our written request we got these data very quickly from Hilmo Pasic, current Secretary of the Parliament's House of Nations). At the same time we were shown tabular presentation of all laws that were considered by this House (the table shows dates when a law was reviewed and its current status: under consideration, adopted, rejected or returned).

It was possible to conclude from the mentioned table that in this delegate term not a single draft has become a law, i.e. that in relation to documents under consideration the number of laws that have been fully processed is minimal! (One of rare such examples is the Law on Ombudsman in B&H Federation which was passed recently, during the already started electoral campaign!) Several laws were withdrawn by the proposer (which in most cases is the Government of B&H Federation) while they were under consideration: Law on Mediation in Employment, Law on Indemnification for Slander and Lies, Law on Restitution, etc. As a result of the Parliament's obstruction, several laws were imposed by the High Representative for B&H (Law on Amending the Law on the Supreme Court of B&H Federation, Bill on Amendments to the Law on Federal Prosecutor's Office, Bill on Judicial and Prosecutor's Functions in B&H Federation and Bill on Amendments to the Law on the Banking Agency of B&H Federation).

On the other hand, it was by no means easy to obtain data from the House of Representatives! At first, current secretary of this House, Mile Kudic, was constantly "in meeting" and the others did not quite know who would have the right to speak to the press on his behalf.

There was a possibility of seeing one Sejo Dizdarevic, chef de cabinet of the House Secretary! But, when we called on him we were told that Mr.Dizdarevic was too busy (nevertheless, we spotted a fridge under the desk, a small privilege of the Parliament's secretary) and was therefore momentarily unable to look for all the required figures in documents. That implied going through many documents and he had asked his associate who naturally had no authority to disclose anything. Finally, the AIM journalist was allowed to read the minutes from the sessions and look for the figures he needed, but on condition that he didn't copy or take out of the building any materials because, as he was told, that was the usual practice! After reading the material, this was what he found out: deputies of the House of Representatives went through some 180 laws, while in those two years they adopted some 87 laws, several information, conclusions, resolutions, like the one on the ecological protection of Tuzla's local communities of Siroki Brijeg, Bukinje and Husino!

The Head of Parliament's Accounting Service in B&H Federation, Ljiljana Raso, was rather surprised by the request of AIM journalist to be allowed to inspect financial costs of this public institution (the list of expenses of current deputies, wages and supplementary benefits, expense accounts, hotel accommodation, etc.) but nevertheless, met his requirement!

True, not completely, but this was progress as the Federal Parliament has not yet discussed the recently adopted Law on Free Access to Information in State Institutions! In other words, the B&H public has finally got a chance to learn that in the first nine months this year, deputies to the Federal Parliament have spent KM 242,849 just for the use of their own cars for going to and back from work, while at the same time employees of the administrative and technical services got KM 37,855 for transportation season ticket, KM 20,928 for travel expenses for business trips, KM 10,800 for family separation allowance and KM 18,906 for Parliament's motor pool.

At the same time, some KM 102,334.62 were spent for the preparation of materials for sessions, KM 112,486 for hotel accommodation (during several-days long sessions of both Houses) mostly in "Holiday Inn" and "Palace" and KM 77,951.63 for professional specialisation (!), publications and magazines - in a nutshell - for other people's services. It should be noted here that only one out of three randomly chosen deputies knew how many Parliament's sessions he had attended and how many days he had spent at these sessions, but not a single one knew how much money did they cost!

There are some interesting details regarding the work of both Houses in this convocation. For example - the House of Nations doesn't have its Rules of Procedure! True, they have been under preparation ever since last term from 1996 to 1998, but were never harmonised! It came to a dead stop with the definition of vital interests and decision whether this House will have the Clubs of Nations or Parties! In the absence of the Rules of Procedure, the House of Nations is working in accordance with the Rules of the constituent Assembly of B&H. At the same time - near the end of the current deputy term, five laws are under consideration in both Houses - the Law on Mediation in Employment was harmonised by two Houses for one year and a half, when the Government of B&H Federation, as the proposer, suddenly withdrew and replaced it by a new bill.

When we asked about communications between the two Houses, Hilmo Pasic told us that they did not communicate much. The House Presidents are entrusted with coordination. In other words Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries and Chefs de Cabinets of both Houses hold joint conferences. However, they met only three to fours times during the past term! Pasic gave the following illustration of his dissatisfaction: when a delegation of the Parliament of B&H Federation went to Venice in order to harmonise the entity's Constitution with the decision of the B&H Constitutional Court on the constitutiveness of nations (in the first half of October, 2000) no one from the House of Nations went there. Asked how did that happen, Dizdarevic answered: "We went in order to coordinate our initiatives for harmonisation. When they prepare their initiatives - they can go!" Asked why wasn't that done at the same time, Dizdarevic said that they couldn't wait for the House of Nations! (As if, according to a decision of the Constitutional Court of B&H, the Constitution of B&H Federation would be harmonised at least two times!?)

Asked what procedure was envisaged for the elections - whether the Parliament would be dissolved several days before the elections or after the announcement of electoral results, i.e. for how long would the deputies receive wages and allowances, Mile Kudic's associate did not have a ready answer. She took the Rules of Procedure and read: "The founding session of the new convocation is called by the President of the current, at that moment past, Parliament who chairs its session until the appointment of the new President", and added: "But, God knows how it will be now. You see how things are now". To that same question, Enver Kreso, President of the House of Representatives answered: "Please, call me tomorrow. I am busy now, with some laws!"

Rubina CENGIC

(AIM Sarajevo)