Report Lifts Lid on Bosnian Flood Aid Spending

A report that is due to be issued on Wednesday by Brana [Dam], a coalition of Bosnian NGOs formed after the catastrophic floods that hit Bosnia in 2014, monitors the transparency of recovery projects and international donations.

The report will present the results of more than a year's research into hundreds of projects implemented over the whole territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ana Lucic, project manager for the Centers of Civic Initiative of Bosnia and Herzegovina and coordinator of Brana, said the job was far from easy.

"The Bosnian authorities from the beginning were very skeptical about allowing NGOs and civil society to access information about reconstruction projects and the utilisation of the funds," Lucic told BIRN on Friday.

Lucic stressed that Brana had only monitored donations towards reconstruction, which represent only a portion of the total amount of international aid granted to Bosnia after the floods.

"The biggest part of international aid was provided through loans, and the majority of them still need to be paid to Bosnia," Lucic said, adding that monitoring these loans will be of the utmost importance since "they will have to be repaid by all Bosnian citizens".

Eighty-three per cent of the funds for reconstruction after the floods was promised through international loans that have so far only been partly paid to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Brana only monitored the donated funds, which account for just 17 per cent of the total.

Almost two years after the most devastating floods in its recent history, reconstruction in Bosnia is still not complete. In the the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities of the country, 300 families are still awaiting new homes, Jasmin Jaganjac, director of...