Extraordinary session of the Rectors' Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina held

Extraordinary session of the Rectors' Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina chaired by Prof. Dr. Sc. Jusuf Duraković, University of Zenica Rector, was held today at the University of Sarajevo.

There was only one item on the agenda - a discussion on the model of hiring external associates in the teaching process as well as the method of payment of contracts based on the development of domestic and international projects at public universities in FBiH.

After several hours of discussion by all rectors of public universities and bearing in mind that the Tax Administration of the Federation in the past period through inspections erroneously determined the facts, Conference considers it important to emphasize the following:

FACTS:

• The Tax Administration of the Federation of BiH has been conducting activities to verify the operations of universities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for a long time.
• Universities respect all legally prescribed activities related to the implementation of positive legal regulations at all levels and duly pay taxes and other obligations.
• The Conference informed the Government of FBiH and the Ministry of Finance of FBiH about their positions and practices of the Tax Administration of FBiH.

FINDINGS:

By analyzing inspection records from several universities, we notice numerous illogicalities and possible illegalities in the procedure:

• We believe that the FBIH Tax Administration selectively applies laws and other regulations, not taking into account that universities must apply the entire set of laws in business, especially the lex specialis laws governing the field of higher education in cantons. We remind you that the cantons are the only ones constitutionally competent for the field of higher education.
• We believe that tax inspectors act in different ways in the interpretation of facts and application of regulations during inspections, which especially refers to the method of calculating taxes and contributions to the engagement of external associates, approach in calculating taxes and contributions to international projects and labor taxation on temporary and occasional jobs, and ad hoc commissions.
• We consider it inadmissible and extremely harmful to force action that is contrary to positive regulations, and technically unfeasible.
• Conference does not exclude the possibility of initiating proceedings to determine the responsibility of institutions and individuals before the competent courts.
• Conference will inform international and domestic institutions, which monitor higher education and development of science in Bosnia and Herzegovina, about all prominent allegations.
• Conference considers it inadmissible to calculate taxes at the full rate for fees for international projects at universities. We believe that such a practice violates the European perspective and standards of higher education and the Bologna Process.
• We emphasize that all these and numerous other activities call into question the organization of the teaching process, the mobility of teachers and students at public universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and does incalculable damage to the development of the entire Bosnian society.
• We believe that such actions undermine scientific research as a basis for the development of everyone, especially the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• We emphasize that there are many other examples that we will permanently report to the domestic and international public.
• Adhering to academicism and all values ​​derived from higher education, guided by the principle of legality, universities consider all objections based on law and regulations and are willing to change their business practices, but will not allow such activities to affect university missions in society.

Points of View:

• These practices of the competent tax institutions can lead to the closure of universities as the most important substance in the development of society and lead to the collapse of the perspective of young people and increase their emigration from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Starting from the Framework Law on Higher Education, which specifies that the activity of higher education is of special interest to Bosnia and Herzegovina, such actions grossly violate this interest, and thus the perspective of the Bosnian society.
• We appeal to the competent authorities that in the dialogue with higher education institutions, i.e. universities find the optimal model in which all legal and other regulations will be respected, and thus give a new perspective on the development of higher education and competitiveness in the domestic and international market.
• We believe that in this way all institutions at all levels will significantly contribute to the development of Bosnian society in its European perspective.