The department's head, Miroslava Nina Miskovic, presented these figures at a round table discussion on the employment of ethnic minorities' members in administrative bodies, which was held in the Croatian Parliament.
The head of the above-mentioned office, Antun Palaric, said that significant progress was made in the application of the constitutional law on the exercise of rights of national minorities in local units.
For instance, over 80 percent of towns and municipalities have ensured the representation of minorities in local legislative bodies and in the executive authority.
According to Palaric, more than a half of towns and municipalities have employed the necessary number of ethnic minorities' representatives in local administrative services, but the process came to a halt when there were no more vacancies in such services.
"We are not going to fire anybody only to employ somebody belonging to a national minority," Palaric said, adding that the employment of minorities' representatives in local administrative services should be carried out gradually according to the needs and possible vacancies.
The human rights ombudsman, Jurica Malcic, said that there were some delays in the employment of ethnic minorities' representatives and that this could not be justified with a lack of political will given that all the necessary regulations had been adopted so far.
During the discussion, the parliamentary deputy representing the Bosniak minority, Semso Tankovic, and Palaric were engaged in the exchange of arguments about the problem of registering Bosniaks.
Tankovic complained that some members of the Bosniak community were registered as Muslims, which hampered the proportional representation of Bosniaks in local services.
Palaric said that his office had neither interest nor ill intentions when it registered somebody as a Muslim but that the office could not change this entry if persons declared themselves as Muslims.
Palaric said that until the next parliamentary elections, the office would update the lists of voters and that everybody who would like to change his or her nationality from Muslim into Bosniak could do it free of charge.