The Federation of Bosnia andHerzegovina’s (FBiH) auditors found that the FBiH government has misspent 80 percent of the budget reserves earmarked for emergencies last year.
More than six million KM were earmarked for emergency and unanticipated events in 2013 budget, but only 600,000 KM were spent for the purpose. The remaining 5,497,038 KM was misspent according to an audit report on the FBiH government’s end year report.
The FBiH law on budget and the FBiH law on the execution of budget stipulate that the budget reserve should be used for emergency and unanticipated events that occur during a budget year. These are usually spent to mitigate the effects of fires, floods, draughts and other natural disasters.
For example, a cantonal hospital Dr. Irfan Ljubijankić in Bihać received 500,000 KM to fix up a hospital after the fire, while 100,000 KM was spent on the landslide repair close to Bogatići hydropower plant near Trnovo.
However, the report states that the majority of the budget liquid reserve – 1,640,000 KM – was spent on financing the implementation of the audit of the beneficiaries of veteran welfare and for one-time grants to retired BiH Armed Forces members to the tune of 1,394,070 KM.
FBiH Parliament’s House of Representatives received 90,000 KM from the liquid reserve for paying outstanding bills from 2012 including utilities, procurement of material and small inventory, commuting expenses, renting of property, maintenance and the cost of insurance of banking services.
The FBiH government spent the money from the same budget item for purposes that had already been covered in part within the 2013 budget. For example, the FBiH Ministry of Sport and Culture received 335,000 KM, while the FBiH Ministry for Issues of the Veterans and Disabled Veterans of the Defensive-Liberation War got 100,000 KM.
The prime minister Nermin Nikšić had 137,000 KM, while his deputies Jerko Ivanković Lijanović and Desnica Radivojević had a discretion to dispose of 80,000 KM each.
They exercised the discretion by giving money to the individuals, firms and associations that applied directly.
The FBiH auditors could not discern what the disbursement requirements were.
