19.11.2019

WAITING TO UNBLOCK WORK OF LEGISLATURE POLITICAL OBSTRUCTIONS CAUSE LACK OF PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL OVER PUBLIC SPENDING

The current blockage has, among other things, resulted in the unacceptably long absence of the  for-all-countries essential parliamentary control over efficiency and legality of public spending, additionally expanding space for getting away with violations of the laws and corruption within government institutions or within the institutions that should have the critical control function.

The Office for Audit of the institutions of BiH and the Office for Audit of the institutions of FBiH released audit reports for 2018 following the release of the reports for 2017. However, due to failure to form the committees responsible for reviewing the audit reports, the reports were never reviewed by parliaments, public hearings were never organised with individuals from the institutions that had received adverse or qualified audit reports and parliaments never passed or submitted to governments any relevant conclusions to sanction poor performance or to improve the situation in the audited institutions.

It is about stultifying and blocking the work of the audit offices and preventing development of democracy, rule of law and establishment of a system in which public money is spent responsibly and efficiently in the interests of citizens, as a vital mechanism.

It is therefore necessary to stop at once all irresponsible behaviour on the part of politicians who must not only formally form the committees and schedule parliamentary sessions but rather engage in serious, intensive and efficient efforts to try to compensate for at least some part of enormous backlogs to  lessen the harmful effects caused by their underperformance.

Because, at this very moment, instead of institutional fight against corruption and efforts to establish responsible and efficient public spending, we are, practically, witnessing stimulation of corruption and irresponsibility in the area of public spending.

The Project “More Effective Public Audit for Less Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina” is implemented by the Centres for Civic Initiative with financial support of Sweden. The project aims to contribute to a more responsible expenditure of public funds to reduce corruption in the public institutions in BiH.