Draft Law on Local Self-Government of the Government of the Republic of Srpska interferes with the independence of municipalities and cities

TI BiH considers that the Government as the central executive authority must not excessively interfere with the independent work of local self-government and that the proposed laws need to be improved

Banja Luka, 9th February 2016 – Draft Law on Local Self-Government of the Republic of Srpska Government introduces an institution of a temporary body which shall be allowed to dismiss the local self-government Assembly if the Assembly does not hold session in three months or if it does not adopts the budget. In spite of the justified need to anticipate situations which disable the effective work of local self-government, the proposed solution is dangerous since it enables the Government of the Republic of Srpska to use its authority to replace the representative body of municipalities and cities, which is the expression of a democratic will of citizens, up to one year. At the same time, the President of the dismissed Assembly was not provided with the appropriate court protection, i.e. a possibility to urgently initiate an administrative dispute.
Transparency International BiH (TI BiH) believes that this issue should be regulated in a public discussion and that the Government as the central executive authority must not excessively interfere with the independent work of local self-government. The European Charter of Local Self-Government guarantees independence of cities and municipalities and allows interference of the central authority, but only under the principle of proportionality.
On the other hand, the Draft Law on Civil Servants and Employees of Local Self-Government, proposed at the same time, introduces a whole series of controversial solutions, which will not provide better transparency in the employment procedures, nor prevent potential corruption. The most controversial are the following:
• A list of individuals to whom the rules on conflict of interest are applied is too narrow, and it was not intended to implement the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest within the authorities of the Republic of Srpska, nor to make the civil servants to report the property owned or to provide information on the functions held by the members of the immediate family, as it is prescribed by the current Law.
• The Assembly is not obliged to appoint a candidate proposed by the Commission for Selection and Appointments to a position of the Secretary of the municipality, whereby the Commission consists of only one independent expert, out of 5 provided members, while the others are councilors and civil servants.
• The Draft Law gives priority to the individuals who are already employed or who were employed with the local self-government, which allows discrimination of all other candidates.
• Special requirements necessary for the employment with the city/municipality administration does not provide the eliminatory requirement based on which a civil servant against whom the criminal proceeding is being conducted for the criminal offense that makes him unsuitable for work in local self-government cannot be elected.
• The civil servants of local self-government are given the advantage over the independent experts in the selection of members of the Commission for Selection and Appointment (there are only 2 independent experts out of 5 members).
TI BiH submitted those legal solutions to the members of the Parliament of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska to give their comments, and it shall insist on improving the provided provisions during the upcoming public discussion, in order to make the employment procedures more transparent and public and to enable the independence of the local self-government and its employees.

Press rls – 9 2 2016 eng