08.09.2020

GETTING BOTH: SALARY AND ADDITIONAL COMPENSATION FOR THE SAME JOB

 FBiH Ministries Have for Years Paid Out Unjustified Compensations 

The Audit Office for the Institutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have repeatedly over the years pointed to the problem with payments of compensations to employees of the FBiH Government ministries. The payments are not in compliance with the FBIH Government Decree laying down that the compensations should be paid only for the work done outside the working hours and outside the jurisdiction of the FBiH Institutions. Also, the audits have established that additional compensations were paid even though it was a matter of employees’ regular activities for which they receive salaries.

Further, the ministries fail to comply with the Decree even in the case of appointments to committees. While the Decree specifies that one person may be nominated for Chair or Member of a maximum two permanent working bodies, one employee was engaged in as many as 49 working bodies in 2018 and received additional compensations in the amount of 27,505 KM annually. Moreover, it was established that such violations of the Decree continued in 2019 when some employees were engaged in 11 working bodies receiving individually 30 049 KM for their work on committees, in addition to their regular salaries.

The report of the Audit Office for the Institutions of FBiH contains the repeating recommendations for the ministries to comply with the Decree on the payments for compensations for the work on committees, however, the ministries have continued repeating the irregularities found during the audits.

It is about this matter that the Centers for Civic Initiatives (CCI) call on the FBiH Ministries to correct the irregularities in line with the audit reports to consistently apply the Decree on the method of founding and determining the amount of compensation for the work in the working bodies founded by the FBIH Government and executives of the FBiH civil service bodies.

For more transparent spending of the public funds, ministries must re-examine justification for the payments of compensations to employees for their work on committees that falls within competence of the respective ministries, to specify the procedure for taking part in the committees during the regular working hours and to organize employees’ engagement according to the relevant FBiH Government Decree.

The project “More Effective Public Audit for Less Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina“  is implemented by the Centers for Civic Initiatives (CCI) with the financial support of Sweden. The project aims to contribute to more responsible spending of the budget funds and less corruption in the public institutions in BiH.