Bosnian lawmakers have worked for a total of 12 hours and 53 minutes over the past nine months but received their full salaries as well as other benefits, which means they earned 2,800 Bosnian Marks per minute, journalists from Bosnia’ Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIN) told N1.
The parliamentarians were paid a total of 2,1 million Bosnian Marks since they occupied their seats after last year’s elections. Apart from their salary, they get a lump sum of 712 BAM and various other allowances, such as for those for transportation and per diems.
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According to CIN’s research which is based on Parliament data, lawmakers make an average of about 5,500 BAM per month when all this is included. Some lawmakers have spent more than 500 Euros on phone bills throughout this time as well.
“I think that psychiatry is more competent to talk about these things,” sociologist and professor at Sarajevo’s Faculty of Political Sciences told N1.
“What kind of message is this sending to younger generations? Instead of hard work being rewarded, you send them the message that they should join a political party and God will let them get money for not working,” he said.
Throughout the past nine months, the House of Representatives held a total of four sessions and the House of Peoples a total of three. Neither chamber has adopted even a single law.
Their predecessors adopted only 59 during the 2014-2018 mandate, while during the four-year mandate before that, parliamentarians adopted 85 laws. Lawmakers between 2006 and 2010 adopted a total of 170 laws.
According to CIN’s Mirjana Popovic, citizens are “being presented with some bickering regarding the adoption of political decisions” but it has been proven numerous times that “in the grey zones outside of those political spheres they cooperate very well with each other when it comes to misfeasance in public procurement.”
Mujkic said there is “no justification” for legitimately elected representatives to not do their jobs.
“If the political top doesn’t want to reach an agreement, you must point that out daily and seek partners among your colleagues who claim they want to work but are not allowed to,” Mujkic said, adding that democratic institutions provide lawmakers with the freedom to work that way.
(1 EUR = 1.95583 BAM)
