A session of the Mostar City Council is scheduled for today. The city budget is on this session’s agenda, along with other two other very important issues: the Decision on the founding of the Urban Planning institution and achieving consensus on the Internal Organization Rulebook for Mostar City Administration.
Today is 24 May, and Mostar is the only major municipality in BiH that has not adopted its 2006 budget. At the same time, the systemization of the City Administration is still far from complete, which is holding up civil service appointments. In addition, the redundancy program has not been adopted, leading to additional expenses that will ultimately be borne by citizens. The single Urban Planning Institution has still not been formed. The status of HTV has not been resolved, nor have the authorities demonstrated that they have a clear vision with regard to the city’s cultural institutions.
The local authorities must understand that responsibility for completing the unification process rests with them. Their failure to fulfil this responsibility has created an untenable situation — and the citizens of Mostar are suffering as a result.
This City Council session offers an opportunity for the local authorities to show that they are serious about working on behalf of the citizens of Mostar, ahead of the emergency meeting that the High Representative has convened with the presidents of the local boards of the parties represented in the City Council, the City Council caucus presidents, the Mayor and the Council President, tomorrow in Sarajevo.