OŠAP-GAĆANOVIĆ: I WAS NOT DISMISSED, HASANOVIĆ SHOULD RETRACT HIS STATEMENTS

SARAJEVO, AUGUST 19 /SRNA/ - Anđelina Ošap-Gaćanović said that she had not been dismissed from her position as a member of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, nor had she received a decision terminating her employment, and called on Deputy Minister of Finance and Treasury in the Council of Ministers Muhamed Hasanović to publicly retract his malicious statements or she would initiate legal proceedings for defamation.

Ošap-Gaćanović said that she had not been removed from the records of the Republika Srpska Tax Administration either, and described Hasanović's statements as malicious. "My employment relationship is still in effect. I have a valid employment contract, and my salary is not any unlawfully obtained benefit, as Hasanović insinuates, but a right to which I am entitled under the Labor Law in the institutions of BiH," Ošap-Gaćanović said. She called on Hasanović to publicly retract his statements which, as she said, call into question her compliance with the law, responsibility, integrity and entitlement to a salary, warning that otherwise she would initiate legal proceedings for protection against defamation. Ošap-Gaćanović said that on July 31, certain Commission officials proceeded to implement the decision of the Presidency of BiH appointing the Commission, even though the Secretary-General of the Presidency of BiH had officially informed the Commission, its members and staff on July 9 that the decision had not entered into force because of the constitutional procedure before the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. According to her, the decision of the Presidency of BiH therefore has no legal effect and cannot serve as the basis for the Commission's actions. She said that, despite this, certain Commission officials, acting on written instructions from the Office of Presidency of BiH member Denis Bećirović, retroactively took steps aimed at creating the appearance that the decision had entered into force on July 8. Ošap-Gaćanović claims that the officials took steps to retroactively remove her from the payroll and income payment system and from the records of the tax authorities, and held a meeting presented as the “inaugural session of the new composition of the Commission.” According to her, other individuals were invited to the meeting, while she and Commission Chairman Faruk Kapidžić did not attend, even though their terms and employment contracts remain in effect. Ošap-Gaćanović said that she had filed criminal complaints against the officials over such conduct and had informed the relevant institutions about the situation. Hasanović previously said that Minister of Finance and Treasury in the Council of Ministers Srđan Amidžić "owes the public an explanation of the legal basis for paying salaries to people who had been dismissed as members of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments," specifically naming Ošap-Gaćanović and Kapidžić. At the beginning of July, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska upheld the veto imposed by Serb member of the BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović on the decision to appoint members to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.