NUMEROUS IRREGULARITIES REPORTED IN AUDITS OF BOSNIAN STATE INSTITUTIONS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 13,2007) – The work of all Bosnian state institutions is characterised by uncontrolled spending of budget funds and other illegal activities concerning labour relations, President of the Bosnian Parliament’s Commission for Finance and Budget Sadik Bahtic said.

Information presented by him at a press conference organised by the non-governmental organisation GROZD are a result of an audit report prepared by the Commission after holding public hearings in the Bosnian Parliament. The hearings were initiated based on the final audit report of Bosnian state institutions.These public hearings have so far analysed 30 of 53 state institutions.

Bahtic said that the lack of a system of internal control in individual institutions represents the main problems and stressed that the Law on Public Purchases is being violated in most cases.

He also criticised the Bosnian State Television (BHT) anf the FBIH entity TV which are spending enormous amounts on the purchase of films and TV series well exceeding their true cost. The FBIH TV has a registered loss of 25 million Bosnian Marks, which is greater than the value of its property.

A number of other irregularities in the work of the Bosnian state institutions and agencies have also been discovered, including enormous telephone bills, spending on the maintenance of vehicles, trips and compensations.

All the reports the Commission prepares after completing the remaining public hearings will be forwarded to the Bosnian Parliament and the Bosnian Council of Ministers. They should then be forwarded to the Bosnian Prosecutor’s Office.

Bahtic said that he has little confidence in the work of the Prosecutor’s Office because none of the audit reports sent to that institution have given any results.


President of the FBiH Entity Parliament’s Board for Economic and Financial Police Omer Vatric said that this Board will request that elected official be brought to legal and moral-political responsibility.

Also,GROZD will launch an initiative for the adoption of the law on responsibility and the removal of the directors of certain agencies and other institutions over illegal activities.

A campaign of distributing 50.000 leaflets to the Bosnian citizens with information about how budget funds are being spent will also be launched in the coming days.