The 9th session of Committee on Economic and Developmental Policy, Finance and Budget of the Parliamentary Assembly’s House of Peoples was held on Thursday, April 14, 2016.
During the session, the expenditure of current budget funds of FBiH in 2015 was discussed. Most of the current funds were spent on the requirements of the Federal Ministry of Finance, and mostly on the organizational committee for welcoming Pope Francis. The next in line according to the funds that were spent is the Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry that spent 352,500.00 BAM on social welfare of “Hidrogradnja” workers and other activities. The Office of the Prime Minister spent 71,950 BAM of the current funds which comprised 95% of the current funds in the FBiH budget intended for the Office of the Prime Minister. The current funds were also spent on prevention and control of the Ebola virus. During the session of the Committee, the Report on approval of current funds from the Budget of FBiH was not supported.
The Committee members also discussed the Analysis Report on business management of the Fund for Environmental Protection of FBiH for 2014. The Fund aims to finance projects in the area of environmental protection, and in 2014 the Fund issued a Public Call in four lots for funding projects after the floods, but the Parliament of FBiH and the Government of FBiH decided to cancel 3 lots and one lot was used to renovate a certain number of schools damaged by the floods. This Report was also not supported by the Committee.
The Annual Financial Report of the Federal Fund for Aiding Affected Areas was not supported, with two votes for and two votes sustained. In 2015, 4 million BAM were spent on sanation of residential objects after floods and 3 million BAM were spent on sanation of bridges and road infrastructure. The Fund was established in 2014 after the floods, and there are still 278 persons in FBiH who were left without their homes as a result of floods. For the sanation of damages caused by floods in FBiH, the Fund allocated a total of 15 million BAM and it is expected that the European Union will provide additional 43 million Euros via UNDP for preventing floods. The Committee members indicated to the importance of preventing new floods, however, this 2015 Report was not supported by the Committee.
The Draft of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance was also discussed. A new right to death benefit – a single compensation in case of death of a pensioner was introduced. A new system of determining the amount of pensions based on an evaluation formula will also be introduced, so that the amount of pensions will be based on the number of insurance years and paid contributions, which will automatically result in greater transparency. The Draft of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance was unanimously adopted by the Committee.
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