Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina believe that employment in state-owned enterprises depends on party ties, not professional qualifications, the World Bank said in a presentation dedicated to the state of BiH’s economy and public administration.
The trend has been continuing to reduce total public-sector wage billing since 2014, and it is important to note tha it is still a source of financial support.
Generally, citizens of BiH prefer to work in state-owned companies than in private ones, Klix.ba news portal reports.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the country with the highest level of emigration between 1990 and 2017 and is well ahead of Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia and the World Bank estimates say that 50 years are needed to bring the income level closer to the levels of advanced European countries.
The greatest number of BiH citizens believe that party affiliation is the most important criterion for employment, and then “skills”. The World Bank also states that employment in the public sector is threatening the private sector and entrepreneurship.
“It is hard for private companies to compete with public sector wages. The average pay gap in the public and private sectors is the largest in the region, “the World Bank statement said.
Data from the World Bank was presented by the Chairman of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, Elmedin Konakovic, who stated that all this suggests that BiH is the country from which most people are leaving, where public sector work is solely party dominant and almost no skills are needed.
“The income and standard of living will reach the EU for 50 years when our children will be retired in the case if they did not leave BiH earlier. The overcrowded real sector and the biggest difference between the wage in the public and real sector in the region is by far the biggest,” Konakovic wrote on his Facebook profile.