How much do political parties cost us?

According to the official figures of the Central Election Commission BiH, the amount of  22.249.042,19 KM was allocated from the budget of all levels of government for the financing of political parties. According to the data compiled by the Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina, the amount of money was higher for about three million KM, but it is assumed that the difference is greater, because the data in the survey were not available for all municipalities in the Republic of Srpska and the Federation .

What is particularly wrong, considering the amount of money that political parties possess during the year, is the fact that the audit of the financing of political parties does not include expenditure control, which has no insight on how parties spend money from the budget.

On the other hand, the Audit Office in BiH hasn’t paid enough attention to the justification of such allocations for political parties, where immediately the Federation gains in importance and where still the Law on Financing hasn’t been adopted, but limits for grants, stipulated at the level of each cantons and municipalities, have been allowed to parties. This is why it’s difficult to monitor whether these limits are respected and in general how accurate the allocations for parties are. Therefore, in previous years happened that at the city level parties were paid more than twice amount of the total ( in 2009. parties were paid 231,81% of the planned funds from municipalities level ). Given also the comparative data, which speak of appropriations for institutional kitchens and charitable organizations, it is necessary to re-examine the justification of such allocations for parties and to plan budgets as well as regulations on the allocations for different subjects, especially social needs of citizens.

While the subjects are starving…

For purposes of this analysis, as there would be a parameter for comparison and to make the data more understandable, the figures from the budget were given in the provision of humanitarian organizations (especially Red Cross, Red Crescent, Caritas, Merhamet) and allocations or other assistance for public kitchens. In fact, the last report of the Commission “ Justice and Peace “ showed that there are 60% of pensioners in Bosnia and Herzegovina who live in poverty, while 215.000 receive less than 300 KM. Every fifth citizen in BiH lives of three convertible marks a day. About 60% of pensioners in BiH live in extreme poverty, while 215.000 of them receive less than 300 KM. 20.000 citizens survive on a single meal a day from public kitchens and even 700.000 live below general poverty, which include all the citizens with less than 240KM of income per month. These data were given by the Commission’s report “Justice and Peace “ of the Bishop’s conference BiH about human rights in our country for 2010., the year, in which BiH citizens have the hardest life in the region. While average monthly earnings of a Slovenian amounts 1.900, of which he spends 58 KM on groceries, and of a Croat amounts 1.300 of which he spends 53 KM on groceries, an “ordinary” BiH citizen earns 782 per month of which he spends 40 KM on groceries.
Although the number of users of public kitchens in BiH  is increasing day by day, and if 20% of the population in BiH is not able to provide themselves with a meal every day , none state-level institution has data on the number of users, the number of kitchens, places where they work and ways of their financing.

Most users of public kitchens are gathered by Red Cross, Merhamet, Caritas, Bread of St. Anthony. However, all kitchens are located in larger municipalities while almost there is no a smaller municipality with a public kitchen. That’s why such a large number of people in need remain without a single meal.

Thousands in public kitchens

One of the criteria in the Republic of Srpska is that the average monthly income per person is less than 41% and in the Federation less than 70%, so that approximately 2.849 people are fed in public kitchens of Red Cross in both entities. According to the data from March 2010., only in the central kitchen of the Red Cross of Canton Sarajevo there are 18 posts from where 1.939 meals are delivered every day, of which 1.743 is funded by the Cantonal Center for Social Work. In five public kitchens in Sarajevo, the number of users has exceeded 4.000 in Sarajevo. Even 4% of Caritas kitchen’s users in Sarajevo are people with university degree. Nearly 8.000 people in BiH use services of Merhamet’s kitchen. There were 7.720 people on the list in March 2010., and the rest of them are those who don’t fulfill requirements of the Center for Social Work.

According to the data from October 2010., there were 623 users of public kitchens only in Banja Luka while Merhamet public kitchen had 163 users ( 29 children) and Caritas 60 users.
Therefore, there are figures presented in the table about the allocation for the mentioned humanitarian organizations, and in the table for the Federation there is a section on assistance to public kitchens which , as an item, has already been listed , while there are no such items in the budget of the Republic of Srpska, except the data for Banja Luka in the City Assembly’s decision ( in 2010., 330.000KM were allocated for public kitchens by the city Committee of the Red Cross and 40.000,00 by Merhamet, while  for 2011., 403.000 KM are envisioned for co-financing of public kitchens. For example, public kitchens in Gradiska were closed ten years ago and the city Committee of the Red Cross has no donors for those purposes. There is no such kitchen in Prijedor either, but the one was opened in Bijeljina in 2007. Red Cross has got public kitchens in Mostar, Bijeljina, Vlasenica and Bileca. In Bileca, the activity of public kitchens is based on the division of bread and milk for 75 families, and in Vlasenica such activity assists 50 users with two meals a day.

Parties are guaranteed and to public kitchens what remains

When compare the allocations for political parties, apart from regular fees of MPs, Councilors/Aldermen and delegates, with appropriations for public kitchens in aggravated socio-economic situation, the picture is complete. Thus, various humanitarian activities are being organized for only few public kitchens and as well as appeals for help to private entrepreneurs, while the allocations for political parties are guaranteed by budgets/estimates or by means of taxpayers’ money and citizens. Zvornik Municipality, under the paragraph about the improvement of work of Councilors Groups (political parties) in 2010., set aside 150.300 KM, while in March 2010. it was concluded that the main problem was the lack of public kitchens and the fact that the project would be inefficient and expensive and that different solutions would be less costly and more functional for users.[:]