06.07.2022

WHY HAS THE ZDC ASSEMBLY NOT REVIEWED AUDIT REPORTS FOR TEN MONTHS? Who is Preventing Control Over Spending of Public Money in ZDC?

The Collegium of the Zenica-Doboj Canton has refused to include audit reports in the ZDC's agenda four times, thereby obstructing the review of audit reports by the highest legislative level in the Canton. Of 13 members of the Collegium, eight members (Amra Jupić – A SDA, Andrej Kajić - HDZ, Ivo Tadić - HDZ, Vedrana Dugonjić - HDZ, Omer Škaljo - independent representative, Ćazim Huskić- SDA, Himzo Smajić- SDA, Sejad Zaimović - SDA) never voted FOR, i.e., to have reports of audited institutions of the ZDC canton published in 2021 included as separate points in the ZDC Assembly's agenda. It is evident that some members of the Collegium are not demonstrating accountability toward citizens or desire to contribute to more accountable and transparent spending of public money.

On the other hand, the ZDC Government headed by the Prime Minister Mirnes Bašić, has reviewed two of three audit reports for the ZDC institutions published in the past ten months by the Audit Office for the Institutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Audit Office) – the Budget of the ZDC and the ZDC Health Insurance Fund) and has not forwarded them to the Assembly for further review. The remaining audit report, the one for the ZDC Ministry of Economy, was not included in the agenda of any of the over 40 sessions of the ZDC Government in the last ten months. 

By comparison, in 2021, the Audit Office published three reports for the mentioned institutions in Tuzla and Zenica-Doboj Canton. The Tuzla Canton Assembly reviewed all three reports in less than four months, while the Zenica-Doboj Canton Assembly did not review any in ten months. Ten months is enough to review audit reports, as proven by the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina that reviewed 41 audit reports in the past ten months.

We call on those responsible, primarily the ZDC Government and the Collegium of the Assembly, to act in line with their competencies and take concrete steps to establish adequate control over the findings of audits and the implementation of audit recommendations. We expect the ZDC Government to introduce into the parliamentary procedure audit reports from 2021 and members of the Collegium of the ZDC Assembly to include the audit reports in the agenda of the coming Assembly's session. It is unacceptable that a new composition of the ZDC Assembly finds audit reports from 2021 or observed irregularities due to the lack of adequate control.