Press statement | 15.02.2017

Information on failure of the Tax Administration of BiH to comply with recommendations of the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of BiH no.:P-48/16

On 17 November 2015 the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina received a complaint which shows that on 11 September 2013 the Cantonal Tax Administration of Zenica-Doboj Canton adopted an interim decision recognizing the entitlement of the complainant to a proportional part of his old age security pension to be paid by the competent pension insurance institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the established amount is to be considered as a down-payment. The complainant claims that he never received a decision on the amount of that pension and it was already three years since the initial decision recognizing his entitlement was adopted.

Ombudspersons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, having in mind the lapse of time, issued a recommendation to the Federal Pension and Disability Insurance Institute no.: P-48/16 dated 17 March 2016 to adopt a final decision establishing the complainant’s entitlement to pension as soon as possible and inform the Ombudsman on taken measures not later than 30 days from issuance of recommendation.

Having in mind the reply of the Federal Institute of Pension and Disability Insurance Zenica, Ombudspersons of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a recommendation to the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina no.: 149/16 dated 20 August 2016 whereby they call on the mentioned Institute within 30 days from the day of their receipt of this recommendation to ensure a mechanism and adopt internal policies on the implementation of the Law on Unified Data Management System to govern in a systemic manner procedures of data input and processing in respect of work experience and salary amount by implementation of the Law on Mediation in Employment and inform the Ombudsman on taken measures not later than 30 days from issuance of recommendation.

Reply of the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina discloses that the Ombudsman’s recommendation was not implemented since the Tax Administration failed to adopt internal policy documents governing the method of implementation of the Law on Unified Data Management System as it failed to govern in a systemic manner procedures of data input and processing in respect of work experience and salary amount by implementation of the Law on Mediation in Employment in order to enable the Federal Institute of Pension and Disability Insurance Zenica to adopt a final decision establishing the complainant’s entitlement to pension and defining the amount of the proportional part of his pension.

In this respect, Ombudspersons expressed concerns over the lapse of years in which the authorities failed to resolve this issue, and point to the fact that citizens must not suffer for inefficiency in work of the authorities, and that they are not obliged to live for years in conditions where their existence is threatened, because through their lifetime they did what they could to meet legal requirements for retirement assuming that the amount of their retirement will be sufficient to enable them the average living conditions - and not, as in the present case, to receive an amount of 125 BAM per month as a temporary solution not knowing when their problem will be permanently and finally solved.

Ombudspersons informed the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a higher authority, about non-realization of the recommendations issued by the Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also noted that this case will be included in the Annual Report on the Results of the Activities of the Ombudsman Institution as an example of non-cooperation with the Ombudsman.

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