To whom and how are the intervention funds of BH institutions distributed?

In just one month, over ninety thousand marks were approved from the budget reserve of the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina to religious communities, various associations and humanitarian organizations.

By: Srdjan Traljic

In just one month, over ninety thousand marks were approved from the budget reserve of the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina to religious communities, various associations and humanitarian organizations. That is twice as much as in the same period last year, and when you look at the structure of approved funds, you can see that members of the Presidency and the Council of Ministers donated the most to religious communities, but also to certain organizations headed by people who ran in the last elections.

The decisions on the use of intervention funds from the budget reserve, which were published in the Official Gazette of BiH in September, show that Dragan Covic significantly increased aid to the Catholic Church, mostly payments whose purpose is the renovation of religious buildings. The money was also donated to associations originating from the previous war, and one donation went to the Association “13. September ”for the commemoration of the anniversary of the suffering of Croats in Grabovica and the anniversary of the operation” Maestral “. It is symptomatic that the president of that association, Ivo Šimunović, is also the president of the municipal board of the local HDZ and the party’s candidate in the upcoming elections for the FBIH parliament. It is also symptomatic that this same anniversary pre-election period.

As the institutions do not have insight into the work of non-governmental organizations and the manner of using the awarded grants, the possibility is left for political parties to finance the campaign of their candidates using the intervention funds of public institutions.

During the past September, Mladen Ivanić and Mirko Šarović used the intervention funds from the budget reserves the most to support the program activities of various associations. Among them are the Association “Be Different”, the Association “Jadovno”, as well as the Association of Families with Four or More Children from Banja Luka, whose president is Jovan Radovanovic, also a candidate in the 2018 General Elections in front of one of the members of the Alliance for Victory.

Šarović and Ivanić also approved several smaller payments of up to 2,000 KM to certain sports clubs, associations and organizations, including the Folklore Society Ljubinje, Fencing Club Romania, Association of Parents of Children and Youth with Special Needs “Growing Together” Gacko, Mountaineering Ecological Sports Association “Runolist 05” from Trnovo, Music Academy of the University of East Sarajevo and Veterans of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps Military Police.

Most decisions in this period were signed by the Croatian member of the Presidency of BiH, Dragan Covic, who together with the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Vjekoslav Bevand, approved a total of 29,000 KM to the Catholic Church on various grounds. In September, the Bosniak member of the Presidency approved money only for the organization of a “conference for the Ballet and Dance Academy”, while the Serbian member of the BiH Presidency Mladen Ivanic and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Mirko Sarovic helped the citizens’ association the most. Orthodox Church for “assistance in repairing the access road”.

The story was published as part of the USAID-funded IMEP Press Support Program