Financing Judicial Institutions

Courts and prosecutor’s offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina are financed from 14 different sources. The Court of BiH and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH are financed from the budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina; courts and prosecutor’s offices in Republika Srpska are financed from the budget of Republika Srpska; the Supreme Court of the Federation of BiH and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office FBiH are financed from the budget of the Federation of BiH; cantonal and municipal courts and cantonal prosecutor’s offices are financed from cantonal budgets; while the courts and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Brčko District of BiH are financed from the budget of the Brčko District of BiH.

The Law on the HJPC BiH, along with the relevant laws on courts and prosecutor’s offices, established procedures that grant certain competences to the HJPC BiH within the budgetary process for courts and prosecutor’s offices.

According to the Law on the HJPC BiH, the HJPC BiH has the following competences:

• Participating, at the Council’s discretion, in the drafting process of annual budgets for the courts and prosecutors offices ;
• Making recommendations upon, at the Council’s discretion, the annual budget proposals made by governmental bodies and/or governments for courts and prosecutors offices ;
• Making and presenting recommendations, at the Council’s discretion, for amendments to the proposed budgets made by governmental bodies and/or governments and/or the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina Judicial Commission before the relevant legislative bodies;
• Collecting and analysing reports and relevant budget and revenue data for courts and prosecutors offices, in order to provide statistical data for the effective operation of courts and prosecutors offices;
• Advocating for adequate and continuous funding of courts and prosecutors’ offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina ;
• Monitoring and advising courts and prosecutors offices on appropriate and effective budget, administration and management techniques and procedures and initiating training in this regard.

In 2011, the HJPC BiH adopted recommendations for improving the system for financing judicial institutions in BiH, which entail:

• Reducing fragmentation in the financing of judicial institutions. A unified financing system needs to be established for courts and prosecutor’s offices in the Federation of BiH from the Federation budget as a transitional solution towards establishing financing for all courts and prosecutor’s offices in BiH from the state-level budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Strengthening the legal role of the HJPC BiHin the process of preparing, adopting, and executing the budget for courts and prosecutor’s offices, in such a way that the HJPC BiH is the formal budget proponent to legislative authorities, together with a mandatory opinion from the executive authorities (similar to the model applied in the Brčko District of BiH). In the long term, the role of the HJPC BiH with reference to budget execution and managing funds allocated to judicial institutions needs to be strengthened.

A detailed overview of the legal framework regulating issues concerning the process of budget preparation, adoption, and execution for courts and prosecutor’s offices, a comparative review with other European countries, as well as recommendations for improving the system of financing courts and prosecutor’s offices, are provided in the annex.

For any information related to these matters, please contact the Court Performance Efficiency Department at the following telephone numbers: +387 (0)33 707 556, +387 (0)33 704 625; or the Department for Improving the Efficiency and Quality of Work of Prosecutor's Offices at the following telephone number: +387 (0)33 707 528.