03.04.2023

Government of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Continues Poor Practice of Non-Compliance with Legal Provisions

In September 2022, the Audit Office for the Institutions in the Federation of BiH published the Report on Financial Audit of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton for 2021 with a qualified opinion on financial statements and a qualified opinion on compliance with legal regulations. Auditors identified multiple irregularities and weaknesses that needed to be eliminated as soon as possible; however, the Government of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton failed to comply with legal deadlines to ensure the elimination of the observed irregularities.

The deadline for submission of the Plan for Overcoming the Shortcomings is 60 days from the date of publication of the audit report, however, the HNC Government has not yet submitted the Plan, even though the deadline expired on December 1 of last year. This is a continuation of poor practice considering that the Law on the Audit of Institutions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not complied during the audit of this canton in 2020. Non-compliance with the legal deadlines in developing the Plan for overcoming the observed irregularities calls into question both the implementation of audit recommendations and the efficiency in managing entrusted public funds.

This is extremely important considering that this is the highest executive body in Canton which should through its own example show compliance with the law and not ignore audit recommendations, which is their current practice. Of particular concern is the fact that the audit report contains twenty-seven (27) recommendations for the elimination of the observed irregularities in the work of the budget beneficiaries in this Canton, of which twenty-three (23) refer to the recommendations that were not implemented in the previous period.

Bearing in mind all of the above, the Centers for Civic Initiatives (CCI) call on the President of HNC to take action as soon as possible to adopt a Plan for the elimination of irregularities and ensure that all budget beneficiaries approach the elimination of identified weaknesses in spending public money. Moreover, it is necessary to establish mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of audit recommendations and to submit audit reports for all institutions under the jurisdiction of HNC to the parliamentary procedure to establish parliamentary oversight of the public audit process.