Amnesty for conflict of interest in RS

Banja Luka, July 21, 2011. – The Supreme Court of the Republic of Srpska, on the request of Transparency International BiH (TI BiH), passed judgment on the extraordinary review of judgments of the District Court, which alleges that Milorad Dodik was not in a conflict of interest in the situation when his son got a loan from the Investment – Development Bank of the RS in 2008., although ,at the same time  Dodik was a member of the Credit Committee which approved the loan.

The Supreme Court, unfortunately, upheld the verdict of the District Court, alleging that the Law on conflict of interest at the level of the RS was adopted after the disputed loan, and that it couldn’t be applied in the given case.  On the other hand, the Law on conflict of interest at the level of BiH clearly imposes that the same ones will be applied at the entity level as well while the entities do not adopt their own laws. However, in the verdict of the Supreme Court is stated that no state law could be applied in this case because it doesn’t allege explicitly the Prime Minister of the RS nor other officials at the entity level, including those to which the Act applies.

In this way, the Supreme Court has confirmed itself the existence of legal loopholes, with which practically all cases of conflict of interest in the period of before the enactment of the RS proclaim amnesty, and the State Law again becomes ignored and relative. According to the verdict of the Supreme Court of the RS, it seems that the conflict of interest within RS did not exist before the enactment of entity laws, which raises the question about the cases from RS which the Central Election Commission had determined, as authorized in the period before setting up the Commission at the level of the RS.

This verdict confirms the necessity to immediately change the legal framework which regulates the issue of conflict of interest in the RS, and the Supreme Court has reduced the existence of conflict of interest to a practically theoretical  possibility, for which in practice is almost impossible to fulfill the requirements.

TI BiH warns once again that such relation toward the laws completely stultifies institute of conflict of interest and virtually disable its prevention and urges the authorities to launch initiatives to harmonize the legal framework, which governs the conflict of interest at all levels of government in BiH.