CCI announced a quarterly report on the work of the legislative and executive authorities in BiH for the first quarter of 2012. We publish summaries of reports for the Council of Ministers of BiH, the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, and the reports on the work of the Government and the Parliament of the Federation of BiH. Records about the work of the Government and the Assembly of the Republic of Srpska will be published soon. To what extent the authorities have worked efficiently and to what extent they have dealt with solving of the real problems of citizens in BiH read in the article. More ....

BiH COUNCIL OF MINISTERS JAN-MARCH 2012

IN THE FIRST QUARTER 2012, FINALLY, 16 MONTHS AFTER THE ELECTION, A NEW COUNCIL OF MINISTERS WAS FORMED.  Until the new government was formed, i.e. confirmed by the Parliament, on 13 February 2012, not single session had been held by the Council of Ministers in the technical mandate. By the end of March 4 regular meetings and the first part of 5th meeting was held by the eleventh convocation of BiH Council of Ministers. The members of the current BiH Council of Ministers spent altogether 11 hours and 35 minutes in session, during which 230 different documents were implemented.

THE WORST RESULT IN THE PAST 5 YEARS. Looking at the performance of the Council of Ministers in the sense of implemented measures in the meetings during the first quarters in the past 5 years, it was in this year, 2012, that the least number of measures was implemented. The second worst result was in the last year, during the period of work of this institution in the technical mandate.

THE WORK PROGRAM WAS DESIGNED ON TIME, BUT WAS NOT REVISED WITH THE COMING TO OFFICE OF THE NEW COMPOSITION OF CM. Having spent the whole of 2011 without an adopted work plan, the BH Council of Ministers adopted the annual work plan for the first time in 5 on time – i.e. the Work Program for 2012 was designed at the end of December 2011. It was developed by the CM in technical mandate. However, it is noteworthy that, as this government did not even meet in 2012, the program did not even start to be implemented, and moreover was not even revised or amended with the arrival of the new CM. A new Work Program was not developed either, which was promised, months ago, in his first address to the members of the House of Representatives of BH PA, by the current president of BiH Council of Ministers, Vjekoslav Bevanda.

THERE IS NO MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN THE WORK PROGRAM. Analyzing the Work Program of BiH Council of Ministers for 2012, it is possible to recognize as many as 43 different petitioners of various measures and activities, but something that is strange, to say the least, BH Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not among the planned petitioners of measures for 2012. This is the first time that a ministry's plan was fully omitted from the annual work program of BH Council of Ministers, which was then adopted at the Council of Ministers meeting.

YET ANOTHER CATASTROPHIC REALIZATION OF PLANNED OBLIGATIONS.  The Work Program for the Year 2012 envisages the realization of a total of 750 measures at the CM meetings. Comparing the level of the planned and accomplished in the first three months 2012, we will see that 200 measures should have been adopted and/or published in BiH Official Gazette in 3 months, and that the result that was achieved is – 81 measures. This means that the performance ratio for the 1st quarter is 41%, which is 11% of the planned for the whole year. This performance is in line with the traditionally disappointing results achieved by previous convocations of CM. During the period 2006-2010, it was only in the year 2009 that more than a half of planned measures from the annual work plan was accomplished by the Council of Ministers, and even then, only 52%.

IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS, ONLY ONE MINISTRY ACCOMPLISHED OVER 15% OF THE PLAN FOR THE YEAR 2012. Of all the ministries, during the first quarter 2012, speaking nominally, the biggest number of the activities envisaged in the Work Program was accomplished by the Ministry of Finances and Treasury – 11 activities were carried out of 21 planned measures for the first quarter. The following ministries carried out less than 50% of the activities plan for the first quarter 2012: the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Security, Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, Defense Ministry, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not even have any planned measures in the BH Council of Ministers Work Program for 2012. Looking at the annual Work Program on the whole, it was only the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations that carried through over 15% of planned measures from this year's Program.

OF 65 BILLS THAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO APPROVE IN THIS YEAR, ACCORDING TO THE WORK PROGRAM, ONLY ONE WAS APPROVED IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS BY THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS!  To sum up the performance in the first three months 2012, only 3 laws were approved by BiH Council of Ministers (including the re-confirmation of the Law on the Budget of BH Common Institutions for 2011!), of which only one was part of the plan. This means that of 13 planned laws for the first quarter 2012, only 1 was approved, so that the degree of the realization of the quarterly(!) plan is 8%. To make things worse, not even that approved bill that was part of the plan, was adopted in the Assembly during the observed period.

Moreover, 65 laws, that were planned for adoption in 2012 by the Work Plan, is by almost one third (that is to say, by as many as 30 laws) less compared to the plan in the second post-election year after the previous elections.

THE LEVEL OF APPROVED BILLS IS CONDEMNABLE. The three approved bills in the first quarter is exactly what this institution accomplished in the last year, when it operated in technical mandate. This rate of implementation of legal measures was specifically condemned in the EC Progress Report for BiH for the last year.

One of the very important segments of the exposition of the president of the Council of Ministers, Vjekoslav Bevanda, was the one in which he pointed out that it was necessary to continue along the strategic road based on the European integrations, and that a continuous and close cooperation of BH Council of Ministers with BH Parliament was necessary for a success. On the other hand, in the conclusion on performance of the Council of Ministers regarding the implementation of the planned laws from the work program for 2012, we find out that, after the end of the first quarter, only 1.5% of the planned bills for the year was adopted by the Council of Ministers, while during the same period not a single law from this year's Work Program of BH Council of Ministers was adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly.

3 MONTHS - 3 IMPORTANT MEASURES. Of total number of implemented measures in the first quarter 2012, 68 measures have something to do with the most burning issues of the citizens (European integrations, foreign investments, unemployment, social policy, corruption, etc.), while we would single out only 3 of them as significant by their connection with the mentioned priority problems of citizens (Bosnia and Herzegovina Economic and Fiscal Program for 2012 – 2014, Action Plan for Addressing the Road Map, and the Strategy of Learning on Entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina Education Systems for the Period 2012-2015, with the Implementation Action Plan).

THE RESULTS OF COMPARISON WITH THE NEIGHBOURS ARE TRADITIONALLY DEVASTATING. During the first quarter 2012, 5 sessions were held by BH Council of Ministers; during the same period the Government of Montenegro held 12 sessions, the Government of the Republic of Croatia 16 sessions, and the Government of Serbia as many as 57, that is to say, 11 times more than their BH colleagues. 

During the 3 months of 2012, BH Council of Ministers approved only 3 different bills. During the same period of time the Government of the neighboring Montenegro approved 13(!), of Serbia 24(!), and of Croatia – 43(!), i.e. almost 15 times more than what was approved by BH Council of Ministers.

ON THE ROAD TO EU – WE ARE STANDING STILL.  In the first quarter nor during the drafting of this report (by mid-May of this year) none of the most important measures for the Euro-Atlantic road of our country have been realized. The first measure in the „Action Plan for Addressing the Map“ includes the „Implementation of the Sejdic Finci ruling“, without any political compromise yet reaches as a solution to this issue. A concrete effort in the implementation of the decision of the European Court for Human Rights in the Case of Sejdic Finci has a special weight as it would lead to the SSP's coming to power and to the possibility of submission of a credible request for membership in EU.

We will mention some other measures from the above Action plan, for the implementation of which either the Council of Ministers or a certain institution working at the Council of Ministers is responsible, and which have not been realized:

• Strategy of social inclusion of BiH;
• Provision of adequate resources in order to ensure sustainability of the Office of Ombudsman (Budget for 2012 was not adopted);
• Setting up of an appellation system in BiH;
• Adoption of the Framework Law on Free Legal Assistance in BiH;
• Adoption of the Law on the Program of Witness Protection in BiH;
• Drafting of a new Law on Public Procurements;
• Adoption of the Strategy for Development of the System of Infrastructure of Quality and Horizontal Coordination Mechanisms;
• Adoption of a Comprehensive Strategy for Rural Development that would cover the whole of BiH;
• Adjustment of BH Customs Law with EU European Code;
• Adoption of the state law on promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship;
• Adoption of the Energy Strategy (comprehensive) for the whole country (including promotion of energy efficiency and of renewable energy sources);
• Establishing of BiH Agency for Protection of the Environment;
• Ensuring top auditing institution in BiH;
• Provision of adequate financial, logistical and human resources to the Agency for Fighting Corruption, with the acceleration of the activities to the end of full operability of this Agency;  
• Strengthening the measures for upgrading the operating capacity and guaranteeing financial independence of the unit for financial investigations for fighting corruption.

By all tokens, both the citizens and the European Commission will be let down by BH authorities as they will not carry out the goals that they set before them in the mentioned Action Plan for Addressing the Road Map. In such a political climate at the state level we can still expect more negative than positive assessments in the next progress report for BiH for 2012.

BiH PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY JAN-MARCH 2012

THE CURRENT SITUATION IN THE COUNTRY IS MORE THAN WORRYING. Non-functionality of the institutions at the state level, increasing unemployment (more than 540.000 of unemployed), huge public spending at all levels, a worrying decrease of the country's credit rating (from B2 to B3, on review for further downgrade, which is only one step away from entering the C area, which includes the bankrupt countries, e.g. Greece), lack of investments, increasing borrowing of the country, (Bosnia and Herzegovina external debt has been almost doubled in the last 6 years, and the money was mainly spent for consumption rather than for the investments), being blocked on the road to Euro-Atlantic integrations (the only country in the region that did not submit an application for the candidate status in EU), an increasing percentage of population fighting for „mere survival“ (according to certain analyses by world financial institutions, almost 1 of the population is on the edge of the so-called „extreme“ poverty) – these are only some of the characteristics of the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is a good enough evidence of the work and the work results of, among others, the state authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY DID NOT ADOPT A SINGLE DOCUMENT ESSENTIAL FOR ITS WORK IN 2012. Since its constitution until the end of 2011, and further in the 1st quarter 2012, BH Parliamentary Assembly worked without the adopted orientation work plans of either of BH PA houses, as well as without the adopted Budget of BH institutions and international obligations of BiH for 2011 (which was adopted „retroactively“ at the beginning of 2012), and the Budget of BH institutions for 2012, which was not adopted by 31 March 2012, due to which a second decision on temporary financing had to be issued.

LITTLE WORK IS DONE. THE HOUSE OF PEOPLES IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS OF 2012 WORKED ONLY DURING THREE AND A HALF HOURS. The delegates of the House of Representatives of BiH  Parliamentary Assembly, held 8 sessions during the period 01 January to 31 March 2012, in which they spent a total of 38 hours, which is in terms of eight-hour working day, less than 5. During the same period, the delegates of BiH PA of House of Peoples, held 3 sessions and spent 3,2 hours in them, i.e. less than one half of a eight-hour working day. „All“ this time of three hours and some minutes was spent in February, while in January and March they did not meet at all. 

DEVASTATING RESULTS OF COMPARISON WITH NEIGHBOURS. In the first quarter 2012, the Croatian Sabor (Parliament) effectively spent about 118 hours, i.e. the time equivalent of 15 eight-hour working days in session, and passed 38 acts. In the first quarter 2012, in 4 days of session, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, passed a total of 27 laws (which was also the time of pre-election campaign). This means that the Croatian Parliament spent almost 4 times more time in plenary sessions and adopted almost 6,5 more laws (38), while the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia spent a little less time in session compared to BH PA, but adopted, during the same time period, 4,5 times more laws. 

Having said that, one gets a real picture only from the fact that the Croatian Parliament was constituted only 17 days after the elections, that took place on 04 December 2011. In two weeks until the end of the year, after the constitutive session, it also held one working session in which, apart from voting on the confidence to the Republic of Croatia Government, it adopted 9 laws. It took more than a year to BH PA to finish the work that the Croatian Parliament did for less than a month.

DYSFUNCTIONALITY OF THE GOVERNMENT CONTINUES. Something that was noted in the last year as a special negative peculiarity of BH PA is a bigger number of voted down laws (12 laws adopted, 15 voted down), which continued during the first quarter 2012 – only 6 laws were adopted, while 7 laws were rejected in the House of Representatives of BH PA, while the procedure was suspended for 4 proposed laws in the House of Peoples of BH PA.

So, the ratio of adopted and voted down laws in the first quarter 2012 in BH PA was 1:1, in Croatian Parliament 19:1 (only 2 laws were rejected and 38 adopted).

THE CURRENT PARLIAMENT CONVOCATION WORSE THAN THE PREVIOUS. The former convocation of BH PA, despite numerous complications that were not lacking even at that time, adopted the budget in the first quarter of that year; it was also more efficient than the current parliament at the beginning of the second year of its mandate in the field of legislative activities too, having adopted twice as many laws during the same time period. It is noteworthy that the number of rejected laws is identical to the present one, which on the one hand is the evidence that the problem with a big number of rejected laws has been present for quite some time. On the other hand it shows that regardless of the fact that the laws were rejected, the result was still much more positive, because there were more laws in the adoption procedure on the whole, which made that problem less obvious than it presently is.

IN THE FIRST QUARTER 2012, NOT A SINGLE LAW OF THE NEW COUNCIL OF MINISTERS WAS DISCUSSED BY BH PA. The slowed down legislative processes in BiH have resulted in a situation where BH parliament members discussed the laws submitted to the procedure by the Council of Ministers during 2011 and even in 2010. We should remember that in 2011 while it worked in technical mandate, BH Council of Ministers approved the bills of 23 different laws, but that at the end of the year, there were still 12 bills that remained in the parliamentary procedure. Of these 12 laws from the last year, 4 were adopted by BH Parliamentary Assembly during the first three months of 2012.

As for the laws submitted by the CM to the parliamentary procedure in the first quarter of 2012 (3 of them), none of them was debated by BH PA during this period. However, one was still adopted (The Law on the Budget of BH Institutions and International Obligations for 2011). Namely, after being approved in the form of bill by the CM and approved in BH Presidency, it was actually confirmed in the Parliament board and published in BH Official Gazette. So, it was not debated in the Parliament, as the Parliament, wishing to avoid a state of a legal vacuum, approved it at the end of 2011, beforehand, i.e. without seeing it.

THE CONTINUITY OF SQUANDERING THE BUDGET MONEY. The total salaries that the representatives and the delegates of both BH PA Houses receive still ranges from 5.500 to 7.500 KM. Moreover, for the accommodation expenses, based on the 'separated life', for more than 20 representatives and delegates of BH PA, and for the expenses for their visits to families (4 times a month), about 114.000 KM was allocated from the Budget, which means that certain representatives/delegates received up to 2.000 KM monthly only on that basis.

And, again, let us look into the „neighbors' yard“: monthly salaries of the representatives in the Republic of Croatia Parliament range from about 4.000 to 5.000 KM, depending on the office held by them in the Parliament, while the people's delegates in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia receive about 3.000 KM, which is again significantly less than the amount received by BH Parliament members.

Having said that, this is not all about money, but about what you can get for it. Whatever the citizens of BiH get in return for the highest salaries in the area, from their delegates and representatives (and, of course, ministers) is a subject of these reports but is still best felt in everyday life which shows general despair produced by lack of work, inefficiency and destructiveness of the authorities.

THE MOST EXPENSIVE LAWS IN THE REGION. By linking the total salaries received by the representatives and the delegates of both BH PA houses and their performance in 1st quarter 2012, we can conclude that one session held cost about 99.000 KM, and each adopted law – 180.000 KM.

THE DIFFERENCES IN PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WORK BETWEEN THE REPRESENTATIVES/DELEGATES OF BH PA ARE STILL VISIBLE. The House of Representatives of BH PA, in 8 plenary sessions held, during the period 01 January – 31 March 2012, had a total of 259 discussions. However, more than one fifth of them were the discussions of only 4 delegates – it should be also noted that the same 4 delegates had as many as 1/3 of total replies during this period. 25 initiatives were started by 13 representatives, while 29 representatives did not have a single delegate's initiative during this period. A total of 33 delegates of the House of Representatives of BH PA asked 98 delegates' questions in 1st quarter 2012, while nine delegates did not ask a single delegate's question during 8 sessions held in the House of Representatives during the said period.

DISCRIMINATION IN BH PA CONTINUES. Two and a half years after passing of the verdict of the European Court for Human Rights, ruling that mass discrimination of its citizens is on stage in BiH through constitutional solutions of its own Presidency and the House of Peoples, discrimination is still present. The House of Peoples continues to function in an unaltered form. Very much to the shame and detriment of the citizens of this country.

RECOMMENDATION BY THE CENTRES FOR CIVIC INITIATIVES TO BiH PA AND CM: COMPLY WITH THE LONG-OVERDUE OBLIGATIONS! BiH Parliamentary Assembly (as well as the Council of Ministers) has so many overdue obligations that they can spend the rest of the year only trying to catch up with what has not been done so far. However, adoption of the Budget and the Work Program are the most burning issues, being a pre-condition for any serious work. Followed by the removal of discrimination in its structure and complying with the conditions for submission of the application for the candidate's status of our country for EU membership.     

FBiH PARLIAMENT JAN – MARCH 2012

BH Federation Parliament adopted the Budget for Year 2012 eleven days later than envisaged by the law.

The Budget was adopted by both Parliament Houses without prior consideration of the Government's Operative Plan, which was adopted subsequently presenting yet another negative practice here  – as the Budget should be actually designed on the basis of a plan. Of a precise plan, to be more specific.

In this institution still persists negligent attitude toward complying with the delegate's obligation to schedule work, the same that prevailed in the previous convocation of BH Federation Parliament. During the time period covered by this Report, that is to say, the first quarter 2012, neither house adopted its work program – it was accepted in the from of a draft by the House of Peoples at the beginning of March, however, its adoption in the form of the proposal is still awaited. The Work Program of the House of Representatives was not adopted until mid-April. Thus, rather than having a precise plan in front of them and readily starting its realization, the parliament members waited for months before they agreed on what they really wanted to do in this year.

An exception must be singled out from this rather general picture that marks the relation of this institution toward planning work – this refers to a very responsible attitude of the Labour and Social Protection Board of the House of Representatives of BH Federation Parliament. This Board was the only body that submitted, at the end of December 2011, a proposed document for incorporation in the Work Program of the House of Representatives of BH Federation Parliament for 2012. One of the plans incorporated in the proposals included the analysis of the conditions created for participation of NGOs, Trade Unions, employers and other parts of the civil society in the work of the working bodies and the Parliament. During the preparation of the proposal of the Work Program the Board also contacted different stakeholders, the Association of the Independent Trade Unions, amongst others, with a proposal to submit the priorities that should be incorporated in the Work Program of the House of Representatives of BH Federation Parliament.

In the first three months of 2012, 5 sessions of the House of Representatives and 4 sessions of the House of Peoples were held. All three sessions of the House of Peoples, held during the first quarter 2012 were interrupted due to the lack of quorum. 

This kind of attitude not only slows down the process of making laws and other important regulations, but also represents irrational and irresponsible behaviour that causes additional budget expenses. The lack of the awareness of real life and the problems of the people living in this country was also shown when 10th regular session was interrupted, after 6 hours of work, with an explanation that it had been a very long day and that the delegates could not concentrate any more. 

We should mention that one of the topics in the said session that the delegates were supposed to state their opinion on was the Law on Amendments to the Law on Enforcement Procedure. The prime minister of the Zenica-Doboj Canton also sent urgency for this Law to be approved, as its approval is of exceptional importance and crucial for the making and passing of the Budget of ZDC for 2012. He also asked that all the appropriate activities be taken to approve the said Proposal of the Law by 31 March 2012 and also noted that the failure to approve this law within the said period would entail unforeseeable detrimental consequences for the cantonal budgets. However, his appeal was ignored. 

In the first three months of 2012 the complete procedure of passing the laws was completed by FBiH Parliament for only 14 laws – 7 in the urgent, 2 in shortened and 5 in regular procedure.

We should remind that passing of 109 laws was planned by the Draft of the Work Program of the House of Peoples for 2012. This means, if this rate was to be pursued, even under an assumption that all the adopted laws are from the Work Program for 2012, the performance will reach only about 50%.

Two laws that were debated in the Parliament in the first quarter were voted down, one in the House of Representatives and another in the House of Peoples of FBiH Parliament. Both rejections were interesting, as they illustrate important problems that exist in the functioning of the Parliament.

Namely, the Law on Games of Chance that had been accepted by the House of Representatives, was rejected in the House of Peoples, although none of the provisions violated the issue of national interest of any of the constituent peoples. Which again raises a need to re-examine the field of operation of the House of Peoples, which practically represents, according to its current design and the work done by it, a parallel house of representatives.

On the other hand, when deciding on the Proposal of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Minor Offences, there was an instance of abuse of the voting practice. Namely, after the first voting of the MPs, the Proposal of the Law on Minor Offences was accepted with 50 votes in favour, 3 as abstained and 27 against. However, after the president of the Club of the MPs of SBB expressed doubt in the results of voting, saying that there were not as many MPs in the hall as the results of voting showed, and asked that each MP stated its opinion individually, the results showed that the law did not have the necessary majority, and that during the first voting some MPs voted for their colleagues who at that moment were outside of the hall.

We should also mention that, during debating on the auditor's report of the Parliamentary commission in charge of audit that dealt with BiH Federation Budget for 2009 and 2010, conclusions were accepted in which, among other, the audited institutions were asked to draw up the plan and the program of removal of the shortcomings identified by audit and to report to the BH Federation Parliament on its implementation within 90 days... None of the conclusions adopted after the debate on the report was realized within the time period covered by this report, although it is noteworthy that both Houses of BH Federation Parliament are among the institutions, i.e. audited budgetary beneficiaries of FBiH for 2009 and 2010, that received a qualified opinion or conditional opinion – which means that the auditor either did not agree with or doubted the accuracy of one or more items in the financial statement.  

Finally, although there has been almost full 19 months since the elections, a seat of the vice-president of the House of Peoples of BH Federation Parliament, for which a representative from the Delegates' Club of the Serb people should be nominated, is still vacant, due to the lack of agreement. This is completely unacceptable, especially having in mind the practice that persisted for a number of years where the House of Peoples worked with a vacant position that should be filled from the Serb people (this practice was finally stopped at the end of the previous mandate).

FBiH GOVERNMENT JAN-MARCH 2012

The Government of BH Federation started the year 2012 with the Work Program that had been adopted on time, something that did not happen in any year of the previous mandate, which represented a persistent violation of the Rules of the Procedures of the Government that precisely sets forth this obligation.

The Government of BH Federation has changed the concept of drafting the annual Work Program that was in place until now; however, speaking of quality, there is nothing to be proud about the obtained result. In line with the biggest objections by the Federal MPs during their debate on the Work Program for the Government for 2012, a document was finally produced that is too large, illegible and above all dysfunctional.

As for the Budget, FBiH Government was also delayed in fulfilling its obligations, as it approved the draft and forwarded to the Parliament the proposal of this document, instead within the legal deadline, by 1 November, only at the end of December 2011. This makes the Government responsible for belated approval of the Budget.

Something that is noteworthy regarding the approved Budget, or to be more precise, something that is worrying, is the fact that the total expected revenues amount to 1.575.069.369 KM, which is at the level of 2011, while the planned expenses are by 11% higher than the last year's expenses – primarily due to this year's obligation of the Federation to repay the domestic and foreign debt. Deficit, which amounts to phenomenal 350 million is planned to be covered by further borrowing, i.e. by issuing long-term bonds and treasury bills and partly from a loan from the European Commission. 

Having said that, we should remember that the development projects in the Budget for 2012 have been completely put in the second plan.   At the same time, a considerable part of the Budget will be spent on employees' salaries. Federal allocations for salaries as part of the administrative apparatus not only did not decrease in the year 2012, but were increased by almost 3.000.000 KM.

In the first three months of 2012, ending with 43rd regular session of the current convocation of BH Federation Government, which ended on 28 March 2012, there were 12 meetings of the Government of FBiH Federation, of which 11 regular and one thematic.

Compared with the first months of work in the second mandate year of the previous Federal Government, the current Government is much more efficient – during the same time period it held 2 more meetings and adopted as many as 184 measures more (which represents a 64% increase).

The Work Program of FBiH Government in 2012 envisages the realization of a total of 435 measures in this institution's meetings. Comparing the level of the planned and the realized in the first three months of 2012, we will conclude that 129 measures should have been passed in 3 months, while the produced result shows 83 measures. That realization is at the level of 64% compared to the plan from FBiH Government Work Program for 1st quarter, or 19% of the planned for the whole year.

Nominally, the biggest number of realized activities from the Work Program has been recorded with the Federal Finance Ministry – 18 realized measures out of 21 planned measures for the 1st quarter.

4 Ministries – the Justice Ministry, Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of BH Federation – did not realize even 50% of their quarterly activities plan for 2012.

The Ministry that is singled out by its negative result is the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy which realized only 1 measure from this year's work program, in three months. Given a very difficult social situation in FBiH, the level of responsibility, and the number of beneficiaries represented by this Ministry, we believe that any failure in work may cause huge consequences for the standard of living in the Federation.

In its Work Program, FBiH Government defined the obligation to pass 96 laws in 2012, which is, compared to the previous year, an increase of 12%. Looking at the „first appearance of the law“, by years, we will see that there are 56 of them appearing for the first time in 2012, while the remaining 40 had already been a part of previous government programs, but had not been realized and thus forwarded to the plans for the following years. 

In the first three months of 2012, the plan was to approve 30 bills, of which only a half was approved, i.e. 15. This is only 16% of the annual plan.

In addition to the planned bills, during the period January – March 2012, the Federal Government approved 6 bills outside the plan, which leads us to the total of 21 bills approved by the Government in 3 months.

BH Federation Justice Ministry was the ministry with the biggest number of planned and unrealized laws in the first quarter 2012.  Of 9 bills that should have been approved in the first quarter, 2 were prepared by the Justice Ministry, and approved by the Government. Given the fact that even during the previous years this Ministry had one of the most complex legislative plans, and the worst record of law approval on the annual level, we note again that it is high time that human resources, i.e. the competencies of the employees in the field of drafting public policies be improved. It is obvious that the desired improvement of the situation regarding drafting laws and other public policies within the jurisdiction of the Federal justice Ministry is not accomplished by mere replacement of the minister.

Of 21 bills that were approved by BH Federation Government from 01 January to 31 March 2012, 16 were submitted to the parliament procedure in the form of proposal. Moreover, of 16 approved proposed laws in the Government meetings that were held, by the end of March 2012, the parliamentary procedure was completed for only 2 laws, namely „The Law on Amendment to the Law on Agriculture in BiH Federation“ and „The Law on Amendments to the Law on Cash Supports in Agriculture and Rural Development“.

Over 80% of the laws approved by BH Federation Government in the form of a proposal, during the analyzed period, did not appear on the agenda of the sittings of the BH Federation Parliament in the first quarter of this year.

Two previously mentioned Government laws from 2012, adopted by the Federal Parliament during the first quarter of this year, are a part of this year's work plan of the Government and hence of the Parliament too. This means that during 25% of spent time in 2012, only 2% of planned laws in this year's Program of Work of the Government and Parliament of BiH underwent full parliamentary procedure.

These activities have been supported by USAID

CCI report on the quality of life of citizens released. The citizens of BiH are satisfied only with their family life. Very low level of trust in people is present in all the analyzed municipalities. There are huge differences in GDP, household income, percentage of employees, cost of utilities, number and cost of administration, the number of medicine doctors. These are only part of the findings of the reports on the quality of life of citizens in 14 municipalities covered by the project "Local administration for the quality of life of citizens - phase 2", funded by the EU. More… 

The average index of the quality of lifemeasured in 14 municipalities covered by the project "Local administration for the quality of life of citizens - Phase 2" funded by the European Union, is 50,24 from the maximum 80,00.

Although in most municipalities, there was a slight improvement, administrative apparatus remains bulky and expensive. The exception is the municipality of Tuzla, which is aware of the problems of their bulky administration, number of employees in administration, compared with year of 2008 decreased by 50 employees. The worst ratio of employees in the administration and population, as in previous years and still have Trebinjeand Mostar, where one administration worker comes on 200 people.Municipality of Doboj allocated the largest percentage of the budget, over 30% for wages and salaries of employees in the administration.

At the same time, this is a municipality that, among the observed municipalities,holds the record for monthly income of the local representatives, which amounts to 890 KM, despite the previous reductions of 35%. Inthe utilities sector, findings ofCCI show that in observed municipalities, the most expensive water drink the citizens of Bijeljina and Tuzla, with a price of over 1.20KM/m³. Unlike them, the citizens of Zenica pay water only0.47 KM/m³. In most of observed municipalities there was a rise in heating prices compared to year 2009. The cheapest heating system is in Tuzla, where citizens pay 1.68 KM/m2 while inBanja Luka and Travnik, the price is almost 2 times higher.

GDP per capita in municipalities for 2010 (for 2011 data is not available) ranged from about 5.200 KM in Foca to 10.400 KM in Banja Luka and 18.200 KM in Novo Sarajevo. At the same time the percentage of households with incomes less than 500 KM (level of poverty) in Siroki Brijeg is 7% and 72% inFoca. The largest number of respondents who had bigger difficulties "to make ends meet" is in the municipalities of Trebinje, Foca and Pale. The highest frequency of debt to pay household bills in 2011 (utilities, etc.) had respondents in the municipality of Trebinje, and most favorable situation for both of these parameters was in Novo Sarajevo and Siroki Brijeg. In most municipalities in relation to the period 2 years ago, the ratio of employees in relation to the population worsened.

[1]Banja Luka, Tuzla, Novo Sarajevo, Mostar, Doboj, Pale, Foca, Trebinje, Bihac, Travnik, Siroki Brijeg, Livno, Bijeljina i Zenica.

Most favorable situation is in the municipality of Novo Sarajevo, where on 2.9 citizens comes 1 employed person.The following are Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar and Trebinje with about 4 citizens on 1 employed person.The most difficult situation in this area is in the municipalities of Livno and Foca, where on 7 citizens comesone employed person.

The least likely job losses possibility on own assessment of the respondents is in the Bihac area, and N. Sarajevo, and thelargest is in Livno and Foca.

In most municipalities surveyed, compared to 2009, there was an increase in the number of doctors in the primary healthcare in relation to the number of citizens. The most favorable ratio is in Tuzla, where one doctor comesto about 670 citizens,compared to Livno where the ratio is 1:1600.At the same time, most of the reasonsfor the complaints of long waits for serviceof a doctor during the day had the respondents inLivno and Mostar. In most municipalities observed, respondents did not have much reason tocomplain about the accessibility ofhealth facilities, in terms of distance, and in terms of costs to get to a doctor.

Research results show that generallyin all municipalities observed, trustin people is at low level, which shows,among other things, the overall picture of Bosnian society. On a scale of 1 to 10,average rating of trust in people over 5 only gave respondents in the municipality of Livno (5.39) and the lowest average rating level oftrust in people was given in Trebinje, 1.82. Among the seven indicators of subjective quality of life, respondents were most satisfied with the family and family life.

The above mentioned are just some of the results of measuring of the quality of life through a methodology designed on the basis of parameters used by the EU countries, by combining available data collected from official available sources, and the responses obtained through a survey that was conducted in all 14 municipalities with a total of 1532 respondents.

The highest index of quality of life among observed municipalities has Siroki Brijeg,57.89 right above of Banja Luka and NovoSarajevo. In the last place is Foca, with an index of quality of life of 41.37.

The obtained results, for themselves, for the most part cannot be used for evaluation of the previous mandate of the municipal mayors, because they do not containcomparable data, what was the situation when they arrived in the administration, but can serve local and other levels of administration in recognizing the current state of certain areas of quality of life, and intensification of activities related to its improvementin the future. At the same time, in light of the upcoming local elections could serve as a basis for creating political platforms of candidatesfor elections in the context of increasing of quality of life. 

Planet Earth day event. As part of the Project “Reduction of plastic bags usage in B&H” and in cooperation with the Association of high school students in Bosnia and Herzegovina (ASUBIH), CCI in front of the Cathedral in Sarajevo, organized promotional stand, for 22nd April, Planet Earth Day.  More… 

Similar to the previously organized stands, citizens’ attention was drawn to the harmfulness of thin plastic bags, leaflets and brochures were distributed with key information about the Project, as well as the cotton bags for those citizens who signed petition supporting activities of the CCI in order to reduce usage of plastic bags. This time the citizens had the opportunity to see the photographs received within the contest for the best photographs depicting the environmental pollution by plastic bags.

The stand was visited by a large number of citizens, and 500 signatures were collected as a support for legislation adoption to regulate the production, distribution and importation of plastic bags. Reactions of passers-by were very positive, not only on the stand and also through some comments on forums and portals that, besides the large number of electronic media, passed the news about this event. At the same time, activists of the local teams ASUBIH's in another 30 cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina sent the same message to citizens about hazards of plastic bags through the educational material, and also cleaned one public space in their cities, thus giving their direct contribution to the depollution of the environment in which they are living.

In June, meetings with relevant ministries of both entities of B&H are planned (the area of ecology and trade) where a draft of a by-law in the form of regulation will be offered. The idea is to create a closed system in which polluters would pay compensation for the production of thin plastic bags, but also would receive incentives for the production of degradable and thick plastic bags, changing of technology, and so on. 

A Report on the Situation regarding citizens' participation in decision-making processes in BiH for 2011 published. The findings of CCI's analysis of legal frameworks that define the possibility of citizens' inclusion in decision-making processes, as well as a survey of citizens' experience in participation in local decision-making in 14 selected municipalities have shown that in 2011 another opportunity was missed for BH citizens to be involved in decision-making. That process still remains solely in the hands of the authorities, far from the citizens' influence. The survey was conducted with the support of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. More...  

No progress was noted in 2011 in citizens' inclusion in decision-making – this could be a brief summary of this year's report. The citizens are still not the partners to their elected representatives when it comes to designing public policies, although developing partner relations with the citizens is a common subject during the public appearances of BH government officials. During the survey conducted in 2011, 80% of citizens expressed their view that they wanted to be actively involved in designing public policies. Although the local community was recognized as the main mechanism of participation (nearly 70% of the respondents), the authorities did not do anything on reform of the local community, which in turn is unable, due to its outdated concept, to contribute to solving the problem of citizens' participation. The percentages of observed variables for 2011 indicate that only 26.5% of citizens believe in the work of local authorities, and that 47.6% was happy with the work of the authorities. Mere existence is crucial for almost 70% of citizens in order to be involved in decision-making processes. These are the percentages that the citizens wish to change and therefore, they go for elections; however, although they vote for the individuals and the parties wishing to improve the situation, nothing really changes and this makes people's lives even more difficult.

Too few elected political actors in BiH still believe and understand that they have been both elected and responsible in order to ensure better and easier life for citizens. Public servants are still very negative when it comes to citizens' participation. 23% of interviewed officials believe that the process of decision-making is slowed down by the citizens, while a similar number of them believe that citizens' participation in decision-making is unnecessary. Public servants are very poorly informed about the real problems and attitudes of citizens regarding decision-making – only 32% of public servants believe that the local community is the main mechanism of citizens' participation, while the percentage of citizens who believe the same is 68%. As many as 80% of public servants trust the work of the local authorities; on the other hand, this opinion is shared by only 26,5% of interviewed citizens. Also, 83% of interviewed servants believe that the citizens are very well or quite well/informed about the manner of participation, while the citizens point out their wish to be better informed (27.4% of citizens) as a main reason for their wish to be involved in decision-making. 

Since 2005 CCI has been conducting the survey, on the annual level, on the situation regarding citizens' participation in decision-making processes in BiH. In its assessing the perception and the experience of citizens and public servants regarding the practice of the authorities regarding the citizens' involvement, as well as the changes of the legal framework, CCI provides an evaluation of the annual progress in citizens' influence on decision-making in BiH. Like in the previous years, in 2011, the survey was conducted in 14 target municipalities throughout BiH ( Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Gradiška, Teslić, Trebinje, Zenica, Čapljina, Mostar, Prozor, Doboj, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Srebrenica and Bihać).  Public opinion polling was conducted on a sample of 994 citizens and 100 employees in local self-governances. Additionally, an analysis of the legal framework was carried out that covered the relevant legal acts defining the possibility of citizens' inclusion in decision-making processes (BH Constitution and constitutions of both entities, as well as those of the cantons in FBiH, Rules of Procedure of BH Parliamentary Assembly and of the RS, FBiH, cantons and elected municipalities from both entities, and the Laws on Local Self-Governance of RS and FBiH and the statutes of the Municipalities included in the survey). 

Full report in local language http://www.cci.ba/pubs/1/21/1.html 

Municipalities Vlasenica and Milici started the application of adopted citizens’ participation mechanisms. During the realization of the project activities in the Municipalities of Srebrenica, Bratunac, Vlasenica and Milići, in which CCI carry out the component ‘Citizens’ Participation in Decision-Making’ as part of the Project “Reconciliation and Development of Communities/Participatory Democratic Development in 4 Municipalities of Birac region 2011-2012”, the municipalities of Vlasenica and Milici, included in the project since 2011, started the application, with CCI’s support, of adopted mechanisms of citizens’participation in decision-making processes. CARITAS and UZ Priroda are CCI’s partners on this project. The project was financed with the support of the Swiss Government (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) and the Government of Lichtenstein. More… 

For the municipalities of Srebrenica and Bratunac, that were included in the project during the previous stage, CCI drafted the Reports on Monitoring the Application of Decisions as of 31 December 2011. Vlasenica and Milici are the‘new’ municipalities that have been included in the monitoring of the implementation of the decisions in this year. Before that, in cooperation with and thanks to the efforts of the Working Development Groups, composed of the representatives of Municipal Administrative Service and local communities, CCI provided support to the responsible persons in municipal administrations and trained them on how to implement the decisions. In Vlasenica and Milici, in cooperation with the members of the Operative Team of the Working Development Groups, CCI developed for both municipalities the Draft Flow Charts and accompanying documents for the efficient application of newly adopted decisions. These documents were presented in the meetings with the president of the Municipal Assembly of Vlasenica, Sakib Zubovic and the Municipal Assembly secretary, Tatjana Vidovic, and in Milici, with the head of the Department of General Administration Gordana Saric and the Municipal Assembly secretary Jadranka Srdic. On that occasion, full support in the implementation was given.

As part of the segment of the project on working with the Team for Development and Application of Projects, after nominating a joint ‘mini project’ for all four municipalities, and with the support of CCI, the Team members created eight project ideas, which could, with the development and drafting of the project, be nominated toward potential donors. A consensus was reached between the Team members that the idea of forming a mini fruit drier would be the most acceptable for elaboration.

CCI presented their results and plans at the meeting of the project partners in Vlasenica on May 11, 2012. Besides the representatives of CCI and UZ Priroda, the meeting was attended by Regula Hafner, Erich Ruppen, Peter Amhof and Zlatan Savic, on behalf of CARITAS Switzerland. The participants in the presentation visited the Municipality Vlasenica and in the discussion with the mayor, Mladen Popovic, expressed their satisfaction with the cooperativeness of the municipality in the implementation of the project activities within the Project 'Reconciliation and Development of Communities/Participatory Democratic Development in Four Municipalities of Birac region'.

After the guests had presented the activities in the area of Vlasenica and Municipalities Milici, Srebrebnica and Bratunac, which were also included in the Project, the municipal mayor of Vlasenica also presented his view of the presence of CARITAS in the municipal area and his opinion on the achieved results. It was jointly determined that the Project was successfully implemented, for which they commended each other, i.e. the Municipality of Vlasenica was complimented for its cooperativeness, CARITAS Switzerland for its efforts put into the „mini projects” and partner organizations – for education of citizens.  

CCI have been actively working on the implementation of anti-corruption measures from the national Strategy for Fighting Corruption and the accompanying Action Plan since 2009. CCI made their contribution to these processes by implementing anti-corruption campaigns in the field of education, healthcare and employment. In education, the focus is on the incorporation of the subjects from ethics and fighting corruption in the curricula, as well as on education of teachers on these topics. In the sector of healthcare, we focused our activities on adoption and application of the Rulebook for Prevention and Fighting Corruption, as a system tool. So far these documents have been adopted by 32 healthcare institutions. In the field of employment CCI have been advocating concrete measures from the Employment Strategy. With a view to monitor the degree of implementation of these measures, in cooperation with the entities’ ministries, two responsibility forums were held in Sarajevo and Banja Luka during May in order to draw the public’s attention to the necessity of greater engagement of the representatives of the authorities on solving of this problem. More... 

Education
In the field of education we focused on the incorporation (of additional) subjects in the field of ethics and fighting corruption into the curricula of educational institutions, first of all of the secondary and elementary schools, because we believe that the education of the student population is crucial to the prevention of corruption. To that end, and with the help of partner organization Transparency International (TI) and their experts in the field of fighting corruption, training was organized for a big number of teachers from various parts of BIH. Necessary educative material had been designed before that, which comprised the state-of-the-art theoretic presentations of ethics, corruption and related concepts, and especially practical instructions and the methodology of work with the pupils. Based on that, during 2011 and at the beginning of 2012, training was carried out that included a big number of teachers from all parts of BiH. After organizing such big trainings, and on the basis of the agreement with the responsible cantonal ministries in Canton Sarajevo and Bosna-Podrinje Canton, started the process of incorporation of the subjects in the field of ethics and fighting corruption in the curricula of the secondary and primary schools.
Following a number of meetings and contacts with the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Mr. Zlatko Hadziomerovic, and his associates, a large training session was organized in Mostar on 05 March 2012 for about 50 pedagogues and secondary school teachers of social subjects. In addition to the representatives of the competent ministry, the lecture was attended by the representatives of OSCE and non-governmental sector from the Mostar area. The event was covered by the media and a strong message was sent out to the public about the necessity of higher inclusion of the pupils in fighting corruption and in that sense, stronger education, as a key to the prevention of these negative occurrences.
Also, during May, based on the cooperation with the minister Helena Loncar and other representatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of West Herzegovina Canton, a similar lecture was organized in Grude, for the teachers in this Canton. The teachers expressed their view that pupils should be better educated in this area and obliged themselves to address, in the forthcoming period, the appropriate topics in the field of ethics and fighting corruption in the Democracy and Human Rights as well as in Homeroom classes.  The teachers expressed a possibility for the education of the pupils in this field to be performed through other social subjects, based on the knowledge gained and through instructions and proposals. We would like to mention that all the teachers who attended the lectures so far received the education material both in print and in electronic format. The CCI also provided material for all the schools whose representatives asked for them and for many teachers who did not attend our lectures.
Training of teachers of the Republic of Srpska was performed following a number of contacts and meetings with the minister Anton Kasipovic and other representatives of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska, as well as of the RS Pedagogic Institute. The training was organized jointly, on a partner basis. A lecture was given with the use of the state-of-the-art technical equipment, through a video conference, on the premises of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Banja Luka. On the first day, on 18 April, training was attended by the secondary school teachers of Democracy and Human Rights Sociology and Philosophy in Banja Luka, Prijedor, Doboj and Bijeljina. After the lecture a press conference was organized on the premises of the Ministry and the public was addressed by minister Kasipovic, TI spokesperson Ivana Korajlic and the CCI project manager Asmir Cilimkovic. The audience’s attention was drawn to the huge problem that our country has with corruption and to the necessity of higher inclusion of the authorities in the process of fighting this plague, especially by those who are responsible for the implementation of the Strategy for Fighting Corruption 2009-2014 and the Action Plan. On the second day, on 19 April, the lecture was given for the teachers in Zvornik, Foca, Istocno Sarajevo and Trebinje. 

 
Health care system
In the sector of health care system we focused our activities on passing and the application of the Rulebook for the Prevention and Fighting Corruption, as a system act that represents a necessary pre-condition for fighting corruption in healthcare institution, the adoption of which is obligatory under the Strategy for Fighting Corruption and the Action Plan. 
During the period 15 February – 15 May 2012, 5 more healthcare institutions adopted the mentioned Rulebooks, which means that a total of 32 healthcare institutions have adopted these obligatory legal acts at the CCI’s initiative. We would like to mention that, besides these, there are many healthcare institutions that have the Rulebooks but are waiting for the Management Board meetings for them to be officially adopted and come into force.
In the past period, to the end of influencing the application and the effects of the Rulebook within the healthcare institution, CCI designed the educational material in the field of fighting corruption, intended for healthcare workers. In addition to basic theoretic concepts of corruption, ethics, integrity and other related terms, this material includes instructions and recommendations for the application of the Rulebook, as well as many practical examples of the prevention and controlling corruption in healthcare sector from the region, Europe and North America. CCI chose University Clinical Centre Tuzla for a pilot project and, in cooperation with their representatives, designed high quality and unique lecture in the mentioned field. The trainings that lasted an hour and a half were successfully held on the premises of UKC on 25 and 27 April 2012. Over 80 doctors, other medical as well as non-medical staff of UKC attended the mentioned lectures; they were distributed educational materials in print and in electronic format, as well as other expert literature in the field of fighting corruption. Special topics included the corruption during the processes of public procurements in the field of healthcare, small corruption (between patient-doctor), anti-corruption legislation in BiH and concrete anti-corruption measures in healthcare, including the application of the Rulebook. Healthcare workers did not refrain from asking questions and making their comments and suggestions, so a two-way communication was an opportunity for us to once again reaffirm the necessity of putting an end to corruption in healthcare and bringing back the dignity to both patients and healthcare workers. 

Employment
As in Bosnia and Herzegovina there were no employment strategies at any levels, as long ago as in 2009 CCI raised an issue of adoption of the mentioned documents and started activities to place the mentioned subjects in focus of interest of the authorities representatives as well as the wider public. Putting the most responsible leaders of the political parties and the institutions under a constant pressure in order to solve, in a system manner, what is perhaps the biggest problem of Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens, through its employment campaign, CCI managed to procure passing of the Employment Strategy and of the accompanying Action Plans both at the state and at the entities’ levels.
During this reporting period, the CCI representatives held meetings with the minister of Labour and Social Policy of FBiH, Mr. Vjekoslav Camber and his associates, as well as with minister Petar Djokic and other representatives of RS Ministry of Labour and Veteran and Disabled Persons’ Protection. Advocating concrete measures from the Employment Strategy, and with a view to monitor this process, further cooperation with the representatives of competent ministries, on a partner basis, was agreed in these meetings. Holding of two round tables on the subject „Previous implementation of the Employment Strategy and Future Activities on its Implementation“ was planned for the forthcoming period. The first of the two responsibility forums was scheduled to take place in Sarajevo on 16 May 2012, and the second in Banja Luka on 22 May 2012, in order to draw the public’s attention to the necessity of higher engagement of the government officials around this burning problem in BiH. In addition to responsible persons from the relevant ministries and the Institute for Employment, the event will be attended by the representatives of Trade Unions, Association of Employers, Chambers of Commerce and the representatives of non-governmental sector, students, unemployed persons as well as other interested citizens. These two major events will be covered by the media and the public will be informed about what the authorities representatives had done so far on implementation of the Employment Strategies, as well as what is planned to be done in the next period. In this way CCI plans to make additional pressure on the authorities representatives, all toward a general goal of improving the citizens’ standard of living and increasing the number of employed persons in BiH.

These activities have been supported by USAID