While the deadlines are melting, and the public is left without insight into the key document, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a draft budget for 2026 ready even at the end of November.
The representatives warn that the old practice of secretly writing the budget and sending it to the Parliament in an emergency procedure is being repeated, which avoids public discussion and opens the door to new assignments, improvisation and temporary financing.
The Ministry of Finance of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is working on the preparation of the budget for the next year, but it is not certain that the draft will be presented to the FBiH Government by November 30, when the deadline is, Faktor has learned from this ministry.
Miralem Galijašević (SDA), a representative in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told Faktor that the Budget Law stipulates that the draft budget, which is subject to public discussion, then the Proposal and all of that should be submitted to the regular procedure by December 31 of this year for the next year.
– We are witnesses that this Government, of Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić, took over the 2023 budget from the Government of Fadil Novalić and that practically that budget was changed only in the part where it was supposed to satisfy the appetites of those who entered this majority, and there you have the construction of swimming pools and other facilities of importance for some local communities where people from the majority come from – points out Galijašević.
Temporary financing
He says that it is obvious that at the end of November the FBiH Government has not prepared a budget document for the following year.
– There will probably be a delay in adoption, so there will certainly be a decision on temporary funding for 2026. I think that this is a tactical move by the government in order to put us in a situation like in previous years, when the budget needs to be passed within 48 hours because payments to pensioners, salaries, social benefits will be delayed – explains Galijašević.
He points out that the reasons are that the Government is making tactical moves in the sense of “stretching the mind” that it is not possible to go into the budget in detail and obviously that all these borrowings indicate that the budget is not in a liquid state.
– So, we have enormous debts. I assume that in this way, everyone who wants to participate in the debate on the budget is wanted to face the fait accompli – concludes Galijašević.
The government works secretly on the budget
Admir Čavalić (SBiH), representative and chairman of the Committee for Economic Policy and Finance in the FBiH House of Representatives, tells Faktor that the bad practice of violating the budget calendar continues.
– This is so that, probably, transparency would be reduced when adopting the budget. I would like to point out that this is a key law, a key document that one Parliament adopts every year and that it is necessary to involve the public as much as possible. It is normal for us to have drafts, and then public hearings and ultimately a bill on the budget, this happens at the level of municipalities, cities, and cantons in the FBiH. However, the Federation as an entity has been setting a bad example for years because the budget is simply proposed in the form of a proposal under an urgent procedure and accepted as it is so that large social systems would not be endangered – explains Čavalic.
He says that he expects the budget to be at the session in January, maybe at the end of January, and that he has information that not all budget items have been agreed upon.
When asked what are the reasons why the government proposes the budget at the last minute, Čavalić says that it is not at the last minute, and that the budget is being worked on, but that the government is doing it secretly.
– The government is doing this in order to hide the process of passing the budget from the public, because it does not want anyone to interfere, such as, for example, associations that bring together seriously ill cancer patients, who publicly demand that more funds be allocated for this purpose, in accordance with the laws we adopted earlier, which provides for the stabilization of the Solidarity Fund so that we do not have such waiting lists – points out Čavalić.
He adds that if you close the budget-making process to the public, then you prevent all those groups from intervening and acting.
– Both the public and the media are prohibited from seeing the budget, and I think the reasons for that are the ones I mentioned. And the budget as such is probably reasoned, analyzed and passed in the government offices – concludes Čavalić, he writes Factor.
