Herzegovina Children Discriminated with the Closing of the Children Rights Department

The head of the Mostar field office of the Children Rights Department, Stjepan Prskalo, discussed the reasons behind the decision of the Ombudsman of BH Federation to close the Department, at the press conference held yesterday in Mostar. With its decision of December 1 of this year, the Ombudsman closes the field offices of the Children Rights Department in Velika Kladusa, Mostar and Tuzla. Stjepan Prskalo accuses the Office of the Ombudsman of lack of transparency in financial management. Prskalo emphasized that the reasons to close the offices were not of financial nature, as noted in the Decision of the BH Federation Ombudsman. “On several occasions, I have asked the Ombudsman and the Coordinator of the Children Rights Depatment Zlatko Ilic to see the approved financial plan, but have never received it,” said Prskalo, and noted that the funds of the Department were not spent transparently. «When I started asking questions about the donated finances we received, I was put in total information isolation, which has lasted for the past three years,” complained Prskalo and accused the personnel of the Sarajevo Office of the Ombudsman of putting their interests before the interests of the institution. According to Prskalo, the Mostar Office was loaded with cases of children rights violations, and it successfully completed the majority of them. «The children of Herzegovina will be discriminated by the closing of this Office”, he said and added that he will complete the project of providing shelter to twelve Roma families in Mostar on voluntary basis. The Mostar Office of the Children Rights Department was established on December 21, 1999. The finances for the functioning of the Office fo the Ombudsman of BH Federation were provided by the Government of Norway, which decided last year to reduce the funds allocated to the Office of the Ombudsman. The reduction should take several phases, sot that the field offices would be reorganized and restructured following similar agenda. However, a decision was made to close several offices, including the one in Mostar, which acted, together with the Office in Ljubuski, as a regional children right office. Many institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the Office of the High Representative (OHR), lamented the closing of the children rights offices.

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