BiH Court accepted another TI BiH appeal against CEC

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the appeal by the Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) filed against the Central Election Commission, which has several times refused to issue a decision on the existence of a conflict of interest in the case of Ramiz Dzaferovic, Board President of the Development Bank of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Transparency International several times submitted the request to the CEC due to the existence of conflict of interests in the case of Ramiz Dzaferovic, who is in addition to being CEO of Development Bank, also the owner of the private company “Dzaferovic” which  performed audit services for companies for which this bank approved loans. CEC, however, informed TI BiH repeatedly that there was no basis for proceedings on the TI BiH request, although CEC was by the law obliged to issue the official solution on this case. Because of the persistent refusal of the CEC to make official decision, TI BiH has filed an appeal with the Court of BiH, which the Court adopted and ordered the CEC issue a decision on the existence of a conflict of interest in the case of Mr. Dzaferovic within 15 days.

The decision of the Court states that failure to adopt appropriate act by the CEC “prevents members of the NGO sector to request a judicial assessment of their ways interpreting the regulations. Also, CEC repeated refusal to act upon the request, and the law, has shown that it is not effective in performing its roles, and that it is very questionable whether its actions are aimed at protecting the interests of citizens, or the interests of individuals upon whose conflict, or its existence, this body decides. The justification of spending taxpayers’ money on court cases of the Central Election Commission is also very questionable, bearing in mind a series of disputes against the Commission in the last period that this institution lost in court.

Transparency International BiH hopes that the CEC will after the Court’s decision finally act according to the law and render a decision in the case of Mr. Dzaferovic, even though this institution has shown in its previous work that it is more prone to the legalization of conflict of interest than its eradication.