20 municipalities developed their integrity plans in cooperation with TI BiH

Mayors of municipalities agree that the implementation of integrity plans and improvement of transparency in municipalities will be an important factor for the development of municipalities and attraction of investments

Sarajevo, 22nd November 2016 – Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) presented the results of cooperation with 20 municipalities in BiH at the conference Strengthening Integrity in Local Governments. The cooperation was related to the development and adoption of integrity plans, i.e. anti-corruption documents aimed at eliminating opportunities for corruption.
Mayors of 6, out of total 20, municipalities with which TI BiH cooperated intensively in the past two years, have already decided on the adoption of integrity plans, and the same decision is expected from the remaining 14 units of local government by the end of year. TI BiH provided technical assistance and trainings to the municipalities, and coordinated the process of plan development, while the municipalities themselves identified key points of action to prevent corruption.
„Positive experiences of these 20 units of local government will, hopefully, motivate other institutions, not only at local level, to start with the integrity improving activities in order to get better efficiency and quality of work, while TI BiH will continue to monitor the implementation of the integrity plans and contribute to the strengthening of the anti-corruption activities“, it was emphasized by Lejla Ibranovic, the Executive Director of TI BiH.
Dragan Slipac, Deputy Director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption (APIK) said that APIK does not have enough capacity to monitor the work of all government levels in BiH, which is why such engagement of the civil society becomes even more important.
The Mayor of Lopare municipality Rado Savic, Mayor of Tesanj municipality Suad Huskic and Mayor of Cazin municipality Nermin Ogresevic presented their experience of being involved in this project. The Mayors of the mentioned municipalities agree that the improvement of transparency, as well as the implementation of the integrity plans, will be important factors for the development of local communities and attraction of investments for these municipalities.

The conference was attended by around one hundred representatives of all government levels in BiH, Mayors of the municipalities and cities, embassy representatives, international organizations and civil society organizations.
The project was implemented in cooperation with the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption BiH, the Association of the municipalities and cities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Association of the municipalities and cities of the Republic of Srpska, and financially supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in BiH.
Loes Lammerts, Deputy Ambassador of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in BiH, expressed her satisfaction with the developed integrity plans that entered the process of adoption by the Mayors of the municipalities, but she also emphasized that the most important thing, which is the successful implementation of the goals set up by the integrity plans, is now up to the local governments.

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