Budgets in BiH: A mere sum of incoherent figures or a transparent view of spending?

The right to free access to information is the basic right of every citizen to obtain from public institutions all information of public importance, ie all information held by public authorities, including data on the budgets of public institutions and companies.

Free access to information is the basis of democracy, because in order to participate as a citizen in decision-making, you must have information. In essence, guaranteeing the right of citizens to have access to data of public importance should enable them to supervise the work of institutions, to find out how taxpayers’ funds are spent, to monitor decisions concerning citizens and, in general, to enable transparency of the work of all institutions. According to the Law on Freedom of Access to Information in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this right belongs to every citizen who can request all public institutions, at all levels, for any information in the possession of these institutions. They are obliged to submit the requested information within 15 days.

In the public discourse on the right to access information in BiH, however, insufficient attention was paid to the so-called proactive disclosure of information held by public authorities. The advantages of proactive disclosure of information are multiple, compared to the procedure for submitting requests for information, which implies free access to information in our country. That is why such a proactive system exists in countries that are considered to be the most transparent in the world, such as Sweden.

In Sweden, as in some other open systems, the Freedom of Access to Information Act requires government institutions to proactively, on their own initiative, publish certain types of information of public importance, such as information on public procurement, employment in public service, spending budget funds, etc.

One of the key advantages of proactive transparency is that the information published in this way is available to everyone, while the information provided on request is generally only available to individuals. In this regard, it is important to emphasize that the information that authorities and public institutions collect in the process of work is a public good, so all citizens have the right to such information. In addition, government institutions provide a range of public services, such as education, health and social care, and information on how to access these services must be proactively made available to the general population. In that sense, proactively published information is a precondition for the realization of some of the basic human rights.

Also, the practice of proactive transparency can lead to the generation of new values. Such an approach to publishing information can contribute to the creation of a so-called information circle, in which various entities, such as academic institutions or NGOs, use proactively presented information, upgrade it and thus create new information.

Ultimately, proactive disclosure of information would also greatly facilitate the work of public administration by reducing the pressure on officials to process and respond to individual requests for access to information, as the requested information is already available.

Proactive publishing would save resources and capacities, both for those who request certain information (media, citizens, representatives of civil society) and those who have a legal obligation to respond to that request (competent institutions, public companies and others).

Unfortunately, in BiH, the laws on freedom of access to information at the state and entity levels allow access to information only through a written request. That is, the laws on freedom of access to information in BiH do not contain provisions on proactive disclosure.

However, there are other, sectoral laws that require the publication of certain information in a proactive manner (for example, in official gazettes or on the official websites of public bodies).

For example, the competent authorities have to publish different budget documents, according to the laws on budgets (budget system) at different levels of government. Under audit laws, audit offices publish audit reports on their official websites. At some levels of government, regulations have been adopted regarding the maintenance of official websites, and in part they specify the types of information that should be available.

Openness and accessibility of the budget in BiH – practice

Political transparency plays a major role in enabling the implementation of key reforms for the development of the country and society. However, this is one of the weakest links in BiH. Although we have the Law on Access to Information modeled on other European countries, we lack everything that would guarantee political and budgetary transparency in practice.

When it comes to budgets at all levels of government, generally speaking, they are available, but it cannot be said that all institutions publish budgets on their websites.

“Even at the highest levels, so some ministries in BiH. They do not have published budgets on their website, ” Ivana Korajlić, spokeswoman for Transparency International BiH, told BUKU.

If we talk about smaller local communities, there are still a number of municipalities that do not even have their own websites, and therefore do not publish important documents in this way.

“On the other hand, those local communities that have their own websites often do not update them, so you can find the budget for 2011. year, but not for 2014. year. Also, the form of the budget itself is not uniform, so it is sometimes difficult to keep track of individual items because they are categorized and presented differently in budget documents, while on the other hand budget items are too general to provide enough information on what expenditures are. and they are simply not explained in detail ”, allegations for BUKU spokeswoman for TI BiH .

What is noticeable on the websites of individual municipalities and cities, and which is a good practice, is that budgets are published on the home pages, in special sections. However, what is missing are e.g. information on the execution of the budget for the current year (eg the website of the city of Banja Luka www.banjaluka.rs.ba). Also, budgets are published mostly in their original form, as adopted before the Assembly, so citizens can hardly follow and understand a document that is not adapted in form and language for wider use.

All this, says Korajlić , affects the transparency of the work of institutions and makes it harder for civil society organizations and the media to conduct research. What is also absurd in BiH, and what TI BiH encountered in the research they are currently conducting regarding budget allocations for political parties, is that e.g. in May there are still institutions whose budgets have not been adopted for the current year.

Mirjana Popovic, a journalist with the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN), told BUKU that while she thinks it is ungrateful to generalize the situation, practice has shown that “general” state and entity budgets and several cantons can be easily reached. This can be done by accessing the websites of the ministries of finance.

However, the problem is, according to Popovic , that other documents on spending public money, such as requested and approved budgets, rebalances, and a detailed report on budget executions, cannot always and everywhere be found on these pages.

“We at CIN are solving this shortcoming by good cooperation with the spokespersons of the state and entity ministries of finance. Thanks to that, we usually get the requested documents immediately after the oral request. Namely, all these documents are extremely important to us in investigative journalism, in the analysis of spending money or in the reconstruction of cash flows intended for certain items. However, not everyone has such a possibility. Especially not thousands and thousands of citizens who want answers “, says the journalist of the Center for Investigative Journalism for BUKU .

She believes that it would be extremely important that all these documents, systematically and transparently, are regularly placed on the pages of the ministries of finance, and among them especially detailed reports on budget executions.

“The reasons are multiple: due to the transparent spending of money – this is how most citizens would be familiar with spending channels for free; due to more active participation of citizens in public life, through the influence on budget formation or its criticism; in the end – in order for civil servants themselves to avoid a series of individual and identical answers to requests for some of the budget documents. And, most importantly – in every house, it is the order that the one who brings money into the house, knows where and why it is spent “, says Popović for our portal.

She states that when it comes to lower levels of government, without requests or access to local official newspapers, you may never get access to budget information.

Then it is more common for you to face the tedious bureaucratic apparatus of civil servants who will ask you to forward the necessary document, so that the procedure of writing a request for its forwarding would not take you 15 days.

The situation is the same with the budgets of individual institutions.

Also, it often happens that the officials responsible for responding to these requests are insufficiently informed about the Law on Access to Information, the obligations arising from it, as well as the documents of the institution in which they are employed.

“It often happened to us that they answered our request at the institution with ‘well, where can I find it now?'” Says Popović .

He adds that it is not unusual for that to happen when they ask for the budget of one of the budget users at the state or entity level.

“Rarely does any institution have this document on its website. Moreover, now I can’t even remember that any of them have detailed budgets whose items are presented analytically, and thus give the citizen a clear picture of where the money for that year will be spent “, states Popović .

She points out that no institution has posted on its own initiative the documents that CIN journalists have repeatedly requested. Proactive publication of documents for which institutions often receive requests would certainly contribute to more efficient work of journalists and the institutions themselves.

Content and form of the published budget

Whether it is journalists, civil society organizations or ordinary citizens, anyone who requests access to information on any of the public budgets in our country, inevitably faces difficulties in understanding not only the content but also the various forms in which these documents are presented to the public . Some documents, for example, contain elements of proposals and adopted budgets, while others have only general items in the presentation of budgets by users. The third, on the other hand, is published with a certain textual part. All of this can be very confusing.

“I know people who, wanting to be informed about the life of their country, wanted to find some answers in the budgets, but due to such deficiencies in content and ambiguities in form, they found themselves in front of a wall and gave up trying to be active participants in their community. . Although it seems excessive, it is one in a series of minor complications and obstacles in BiH that prevent individuals from becoming active citizens “, says Mirjana Popović for BUKU .

Popovic also notes that budgets are often in illegible and unreadable formats.

Forms can be different: in Sarajevo Canton it is a set of excel sheets that are divided by content (revenues, expenditures, individual users, etc.), while at the state level it is a part of the official gazette turned into an adobe document, including the entire law. and the textual part, ” said a CIN journalist .

Similar experiences are shared by political analyst Almir Terzić , who says for our portal that it is often very complicated material, consisting of several hundred pages and tables, defined by codes, which represent nothing but mere sum to citizens outside the economic profession. figures.

According to Terzic , budget items should be made clearer, so that citizens have an insight into the spending of money that comes from the citizens themselves as taxpayers.

Unfortunately, he says , governments, but also parliaments and city assemblies, prefer to use that space for daily presentation of protocol activities of their officials.

“It is often about information that does not even serve the media with its content, much less the citizens themselves, ” Terzic told BUKU .

In Terzic’s opinion, the laws on freedom of access to information are no guarantee that citizens, referring to its provisions, will receive the requested information, especially if it is about financial allocations and expenditures, which is mainly the content of the budget at all levels of government.

“Responses, when and if they arrive, contain encrypted messages, and without prior knowledge or information, you can do almost nothing new, nor will you find out if you just rely on the content of the information obtained, ” said the Sarajevo-based political analyst.

Given all these issues, budget transparency would be significantly improved if all relevant information on budgets were made available to the general public, especially at the level of cantons, cities and municipalities. It happens, for example, that citizens are not informed in a timely manner about organizing a public debate on the budget in their local communities. Better information would certainly contribute to more active involvement of citizens in public debates concerning budget adoption in their local community.

It also happens that, due to political relations in the local community itself, there is no possibility that the budget, in the form offered by the competent authority, will be adopted. Thus, the adoption of the budget in BiH, at all levels, has become a subject of political trade of the governing structures, without taking into account and respecting the opinions and needs of citizens.

This is best shown by the fact that at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the correction of the proposed budget of institutions cannot be influenced even by MPs with their amendments. Bosnia and Herzegovina is probably the only country in the world where the fate of the budget is determined by a body composed of several people – the Fiscal Council, and the cuts are made by another – the Board of Directors of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH. Without their consent, it is almost impossible to make even minimal adjustments in terms of budget increases, except for small internal reallocations, which are also very rare. Budgets in BiH, and thus citizens, have thus become hostages of those known to the public as leaders.

The future of proactive transparency in BiH?

The BiH Council of Ministers recently formed an inter-ministerial working group to prepare a new draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Freedom of Access to Information at the State Level, and to assess the compliance of the existing law with the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents.

This could be a great opportunity for BiH authorities to improve the existing law by introducing provisions for proactive disclosure of information held by public authorities.

To achieve this, a strategic approach to promoting proactive disclosure is needed. Such a system should be carefully and systematically prepared and promoted.

Among other things, it implies resources that should be dedicated to its establishment and development. For better efficiency, coordination with other, relevant programs can be achieved. For example, Slovenia combined the legal obligation of proactive publishing with the strategy of e-government and e-democracy, which resulted in the e-government portal. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish functional mechanisms for regular publication and updating of information, so that information has value and the public maintains trust in public bodies. Civil servants need to undergo certain training in order to be able to act in accordance with the rules of proactive disclosure, including the preparation of information, the application of statutory exceptions to disclosure, the use of various communication channels, etc.

Experience in the world and countries in the region suggests that the best institutional solution for creating standards, issuing recommendations and guidelines, and monitoring proactive transparency is an independent body, such as the Information Commissioner, that exists in Serbia, Slovenia, and more recently in Croatia. for free access to information, which operates in Montenegro.

The advantage of these institutions is reflected in the fact that they are exclusively dedicated to the issue of respect for the right to information, and the decisions they make are binding.

On the other hand, citizens, as one of the most important links of a society, need to be acquainted with the types of information that are available and ways to gain access to them. For such an approach, it is necessary that bh. the authorities are adapting existing legislation on the right of access to information to new standards of proactive disclosure and bringing it closer to the new technological environment.

Ivana Korajlić from Transparency International BiH says that budget transparency and openness is the core of the overall responsibility and transparency of the government, because citizens must have information on how institutions are financed, and how money is planned to be spent. citizens.

If there are no publicly announced budget indicators on how the authorities distribute the money of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, then they do not have information on what the authorities are doing and whether they are doing it in their interest. The non-transparency of the budget, in the end, enables the misuse of public funds and enables numerous abuses, which we have witnessed for the past twenty years.

Source: Buka.com