Announcement of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury Regarding Implementation of a Law on Supplements of the Law on Service in the Armed Forces of B-H



A solution to the issue of application of the Law on Supplements to the Law on Service in the Armed Forces of  Bosnia and Herzegovina is of a grave importance for soldiers who attained a right to retire, and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of B-H, led by Minister of Finance and Treasury Dragan Vrankić, treats it with the utmost concern.

In view of that, the public needs to be informed of the facts-based, i.e. the legal framework for the implementation of this legally attired right. A phrase “as the Minister prefers it” is oversimplified, since the Ministry is, as an institution, obliged to act in compliance with the LAW, for which the Minister is held responsible. The Minister of Finance and Treasury has no legal background for signing any protocol that would give rise to obligations not founded in the Budget.

Each of the B-H Institutions is due to plan and manage the retirement process of its personnel on its own. Along with it, the Ministry of Defence of B-H is obliged to plan funds within its Budget request for year 2011 (it submitted its Budget request on October 19, 2011) to provide for the funds for implementation of  the Law on Supplements to the Law on Service in the Armed Forces of B-H (enacted on September 1, 2010), with concrete data on total amount of the required funds, i.e. payments to Entity Pension Funds, based on detailed data on number of beneficiaries, level of pensions, payment dynamics in the course of the entire application of the Law.

As the Ministry of Defence of B-H failed to include funds for the implementation of the above Law into its 2011 Budget request, these funds have not been included into the Draft Budget Proposal for 2011, which the Ministry of Finance and Treasury has submitted to the Council of Ministers of B-H. The Law on Financing of B-H Institutions provides for the procedure of adoption of Budget, under which the Council of Ministers of B-H sends the Budget Proposal to the Presidency of B-H, and the Presidency of B-H sends it to the Parliamentarian Assembly for adoption, so the Budget Proposal is not being returned to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury in the course of the procedure.

One should also take note of the fact that this is the period of temporary financing for January – March 2011, during which budget users cannot start new or expand existing programmes and activities until the adoption of the Budget.

However, the problem could be solved by way of signing protocols with the two Entities, which is again possible only under condition that the Parliamentarian Assembly of B-H adopts 20121 Budged of B-H Institutions, which would include the funds for this purpose.

There is a strong will with the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and its Minister Dragan Vrankić and Deputy Minister Fuad Kasumović to help solve this issue in compliance with the Law, and the problem is possible to solve though a joint action, which requires both time and patience. The Ministry of Defence may use an opportunity to intervene at a session of the Council of Ministers of B-H when verifying the 2011 Budget Proposal or at the B-H Presidency session when adopting the 2011 Budget Proposal, or the Parliamentarian Assembly session when adopting the 2011 Budget.