BIH on the margins of Europe

Sarajevo, September 23rd 2008 – Bosnia and Herzegovina faces the new fall on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) scale and now, with 3.2 index takes 93rd position, from 180 countries included in the research, it was revealed on the CPI presentation for Bosnia and Herzegovina held on September 23rd  at Holiday Inn hotel  in Sarajevo. This year’s CPI, the most representative global corruption research undertaken by Transparency International, included Bosnia and Herzegovina for the sixth time, and in spite of the insignificant progress from the last year, BiH experienced a new fall and is now, according to the Index, the most corrupt country in the region.

The Index ranks countries from those with the lowest level of corruption to those where the corruption is most present, on the basis of marks for each individual country (ranging from 10 – no corruption, to 1 – absolute corruption), drawing from relevant research the Index is consisted of.

Bosnia and Herzegovina shares the 92nd to 95th place with Algeria, Lesotho and Sri Lanka, and is under all of the former Yugoslavian republics, from which Slovenia with 26th place and 6.7 index takes the highest position, followed by Croatia in 62nd position with 4.4 index, then Macedonia in 72nd place and 3.6 index, and Serbia and Montenegro that, with 3.4 index, share 85th to 91st position with Albania among others. Compared with other European countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina is on the very bottom of Europe, when it comes to Corruption Perceptions Index. The trend of progress is noticeable for all Eastern-European countries, apart from Bosnia and Herzegovina, that has been stagnating on the very margins of the European countries list.

“We couldn’t have expected any other result of the research, since the state institutions are eroding, the existing anti-corruption strategy has not been implemented, although all the deadlines already expired, and political leaders are directly involved in corruption, with the agencies for law implementation and judiciary being silent accomplices”, said Emir Djikic, the newly appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of TI BiH. “The survival of the country is at stake, since BiH already has all the characteristics of the “failed state”, therefore we appeal to all the European Union institutions and others to support the BiH in fighting against the corruption, since it is clear that the magnitude of this problem exceeds the abilities of domestic state institutions”, added Djikic.
The results of “Corruption Perception Survey – Elections 2008” and “Financing of Political Parties” were presented at the same conference. “Corruption Perception Survey – Elections 2008” showed the citizens’ absolute disappointment by political parties. Up to 70% of citizens chose political parties as the most corrupt institutions, and 60% of them think that the quality of life would not be improved after the local elections. In addition, when answering questions like “Which of the following political parties would have the best anti-corruption approach?”, or “Which of the following political parties would make the best contribution to the opening of new jobs?”, in average 40% of the questioned answered with “None”. Because of this, according to Srdjan Blagovcanin, Executive Director of TI BiH, “we can expect even larger abstinence of citizens, than on the last elections”. “However, TI BiH calls for all the citizens to vote on October 5th, because it is the only way for them to influence the change”, concluded Blagovcanin.

During the presentation, the results of “Financing of Political Parties” research were also revealed. According to those results, more than 25 million KM is being spent on financing of political parties from different levels of power in BiH, the legal framework in this area is ambiguous and contradictory, and the institutions for oversight of the law enforcement are inefficient. This situation fundamentally undermines the democratic process and will additionally influence the complexity of the corruption problem in the country.

Documents

CPI 2008 table