Council of Ministers Holds Its 37th Session

The Council of Ministers of BIH defined a proposal Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Implementation of Convention on Ban of Development, Production, Amassing and Use of Chemical Weapons and its Elimination, which the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic relations will provide to the Parliamentarian Assembly of BIH. 

This provided a full harmonisation of the Law with the Convention provisions, and removed  uncertainties stemming from its practical application.

The Amendments and Supplements to the Law provide for taking up by a State Coordination Body (DKT), under the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, of all Law implementation commitments.

Upon a proposal of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and according to additional suggestions, the Council of Ministers of BIH took a decision to adopt an Analyse of Fiscal Sustainability in BIH Institutions, which calls for the implementation of salaries and reimbursements policy with a full consideration of fiscal accountability principles, all with an aim to continue savings agreed within the IMF Stand-by Arrangement.

A general determination for the future mid-term until 2015, is to improve budget balance by way of relative decrease of expenditures, and in consideration to competences and requirements of all institutions at Bosnia and Herzegovina level, so funds for the BIH Institutions from indirect tax revenues in 2014, are planned to amount to KM 750 million annually, and in 2015 KM 780 million.

The Analysis of fiscal sustainability in the BIH Institutions was prepared by a Commission for Salaries and Reimbursements in BIH Institutions, focusing on salaries and reimbursements policy in BIH and the fiscal sustainability in a whole.

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a Review of Donor Activities in 2011-2012, and tasked the Ministry of Finance and Treasury to take all measures needed for further promotion of cooperation with members of the Donor Coordination forum (DCF) in order to use as effective as possible the Official Development Aid (ODA), pursuant to BIH priorities and principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

The Ministry of Finance and Treasury will undertake all needed activities to include as many donors as possible into the Donor Coordination Forum, and thus allow a comprehensive and transparent insight into the use of ODA.

According to the report, DCF members in BIH in 2011 allocated total EUR 541.36 million of ODA assistance, of out of which EUR 171.26 of grand funds, and EUR 370.10 of loans.

Simultaneously, by the end of May 2012, total EUR 443.68 were approved, our of which 176.31 million of grants and EUR 267.37 million of loans.

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a report of the BIH Agency for Public Procurement on monitoring of public procurement procedures in 2011, and tasked the Agency to continue the monitoring of public procurement procedures and keep reporting regularly, at least on semi-annual basis, the Agency Board on the results thereof, including reporting to the Council of Ministers of BIH regularly, at least once a year and as appropriate.

The Agency for Public Procurement is tasked to post on its web site all monitoring results with recommendations for removal of deficiencies.

The Appellation Office is tasked to start without delay publishing of its decisions on its web site, in compliance with Article 6 of its Rules of Procedure.

Within audit procedure of contacting parties, all competent audit offices in BIH should check reports on concluded contracts within public procurement exercise.

The report points at the implementation of the Monitoring Regulation helped improve considerably the development of the public procurement system; 431 public procurements monitoring cases of were published in 2011.

In 2011, the Public Procurement Agency sent 379 communications to relevant bodies informing them on spotted irregularities in procurement notices, contract awards and annulment of procedure.

Upon a proposal of the Ministry of Communications and Transport, the Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a Regulation on Council for Safety of Transport, which provides for 12 member Council, to be comprised of representatives of competent Ministries and bodies managing public roads, as well as experts for road transport, in accordance with the Law on Basics of Road Transport Safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Competent Ministries and bodies regulating the public roads will be represented in the Council by the Minister of Communications and Transport, as President, and Council members: Depury Minister of Communications and Transport; representatives of Ministries of Republika Sprska and the Federation of BIH in charge for road safety, representatives of bodies of Republika Srpska and the Federation in charge for managing the public roads, as well as the Brčko District representative from the Ministry or body competent for road transport safety.  Also, the Council has five road transport safety expert members to be appointed by the Council of Ministers of BIH.

The Council for Road Transport Safety participates, among other things, in development of policies, strategic and plan and programme documents from the area of road transport safety and it coordinates their implementation.

Upon a proposal of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Council of Ministers of BIH took a Decision to appoint President, Deputy President, members and Secretary of the State Committee for Civil Aviation Safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Decision appoints Minister of Transport and Communications Damir Hadžić for President, and Minister of Security Fahrudin Radončić for Deputy President; members are:   Minister of Defence Marina Pendreš, Deputy Ministe of Foreign Affairs Ana Trošić-Babić, BIH Chief Prosecutor Dijana Kajmaković, General Director of the Directorate for Civil Aviation of BIH Đorđe Ratkovica, acting Director of Agency for Air Navigation Service Provision in BIH Martin Raspudić, Director of BIH Border Police Vinko Dumandžić, Director of Intelligence-Security Agency Almir Džuvo, and Director of the State Agency for Investigation and Protection Groan Zubac, and Senad Malić is Secretary of the State Committee. .

The State Committee was set-up in 2009, it coordinates communication and cooperation among competent bodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the purpose of effective implementation of measures, actions and procedures of safety, preventive actions and actions in extraordinary and emergency situations.

Upon a proposal of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, the Council of Ministers of BIH took a Decision to appoint members of joint bodies and negotiating teams members for the implementation of the Agreement on Succession Issues.

The following members are appointed: member of the Joint Committee of high-ranking representatives of successor countries, pursuant to Article 4 of the Agreement, is Minister of Finance and Treasury of BIH dr Nikola Špirić, and members of the Joint Committees are: for the issues from Annex A of the Agreement  Minister of Foreign Affairs of BIH dr Zlatko Lagumdžija; for Annex B Muhamed Smajić, from Ministry of Defence; for Annex C dr Ljubiša Vladušić, from the Central Bank of BIH; for Annex D Šaban Zahirović, MA, from the Archives of BIH; for Annex & Niko Grubešić, from Ministry of Justice of BIH.

They all will be also members of the negotiating team for the implementation of the Agreement, and they are in obligation to develop a program for the continuation of activities and negotiations from their respective areas.

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a number of regulations in the area of food, as proposed by the BIH Agency for Food Safety, with a purpose to protect consumers’ health and enable a choice concerning the food they use, in addition to protection of food producers. The adopted were a Regulation on Supplement to the Regulation on Use of Sweeteners in Food, Regulation on Use of Active Aluminium Oxide for Removal of Fluoride from Natural Mineral and Spring Waters, Regulation on Supplement to the Regulation on Methods of Analyse of Sugar, Regulation of mustard quality.

Upon a proposal of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, the Council of Ministers of BIH took a Decision on level of compensation for vacation leave in the BIH Institutions for 2013, in accordance with the Law on Salaries and Reimbursements in the BIH Institutions.

The level of vacation leave benefit for salary coefficient 4,00 is KM 300, and for coefficient over 4,00 is KM 1, same as last year, as the vacation leave compensation was reduced for the purpose of saving.

Upon a proposal of the Agency for Civil Service of BIH, the Council of Ministers of BIH took a Decision to adopt a strategy of civil servants training and up-grading in 2013-2015, so that they could professionally, effectively and without bias accommodate citizens’ expectations concerning the BIH obligations related to the EU accession process.

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