Citizens still mostly report corruption in employment

Results of the Advocacy and Legal Advice Center show that the corruption in employment is one of the most important problems encountered by citizens, and that majority of complaints in 2016 referred to the employment procedure in public administration and educational institutions

Banja Luka, 28th February 2017 – In 2016 more than 1000 citizens addressed Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) via toll-free line for reporting corruption 0800 55555 and thus were given legal assistance, while TI BiH acted upon the citizens’ reports in more than 220 cases regarding various irregularities.
For years now the largest number of reported cases (40%) refers to the public administration, followed by complaints in education and judiciary sectors.
Citizens mostly report irregularities and corrupt practices related to the employment procedures, which makes more than half of overall reports. Reports regarding employment are mainly related to the complaints about the way the hiring procedure was conducted, the lack of transparency regarding this procedure and the abuse of discretionary rights of the managers.
It is exactly this trend that made TI BiH start an initiative to improve the employment procedure in public administration at different levels of government, and in education sector. Acting upon the citizens’ reports TI BiH managed to abolish some of the controversial employments. The most recent case of this kind is the cancellation of the employment contract of Sanja Radojicic with Elektroprenos BiH, in which case TI BiH found that the provisions of the Labour Law in Institutions of BiH were violated, and upon whose initiative the administrative inspector ordered Elektroprenos to correct the irregularities, after which Elektroprenos cancelled the engagement contract with Radojicic as an advisor to the director.
Within its activities regarding the establishment of judicial and institutional practices in the field of access to information, TI BiH initiated 58 court cases in 2016 against different institutions for violating the Law on Free Access to Information. Most of these cases have been initiated against public companies which refused to submit public procurement contracts, as well as the lists of employees requested by TI BiH as part of its survey on the transparency of public companies. In 2016 TI BiH won 13 cases related to administrative disputes, initiated by TI BiH in the previous years due to the incorrect implementation and violation of the Law on Free Access to Information. TI BiH won 3 lawsuits filed for failing to submit data on the situation in the banking sector of the Republic of Srpska which has been monitored closely after Bobar Bank was closed, while the Banking Agency has never publicly provided any explanation regarding its work.
TI BiH will continue to provide free legal assistance to the citizens regarding any irregularities, violated rights or corruption cases. TI BiH invites citizens to contact its Advocacy and Legal Advice Center via toll-free line 0800 55555 in case they have some information about corruption or in case they need free legal advice.

Press rls -28.2.2017. eng