Every day in Bosnia and Herzegovina Must be a Day of Fight Against Corruption

Ambassador Michael J. Murphy’s speech at the conference “Priorities in the Fight Against Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina” on the International Day against Corruption, Hotel Evropa, Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 9:45 a.m.

Thank you, Transparency International BiH, for the invitation to speak on the International Anti-Corruption Day. Since my arrival in February of this year, I have spoken openly and often about the negative impact – in almost all segments of society – of the pervasive corruption in this country. There are countless ways in which corruption affects the daily life of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the indicators of its presence are not good. This can be seen in the poor ratings of Bosnia and Herzegovina on almost all important, reputable international indices for measuring corruption. And the situation is getting worse, mostly because many people whose task it is to fight corruption – from political leaders, through those in charge of law enforcement, officials of prosecutor’s offices and courts – fail to solve the problem, benefit from it or are active participants.

The October elections are a good example. The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections Pod Lupom, including reputable civil society organizations, including Transparency International, observed irregularities, inconsistencies and fraud during elections throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. The extent of the fraud is still not completely clear, but judging by what was recorded by the organizations that monitored the election process – they are very serious. If electoral fraud is not controlled, it undermines democratic institutions and faith in democracy.

The 2020 elections in Doboj were marked by fraud, and the fraud went unpunished. It is easily possible that this encouraged some politicians to think that they can get away with actions such as those recorded by Pod Lupom and other organizations that followed this election cycle. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to conclude that – if allegations of fraud in the 2022 elections are not fully investigated and the perpetrators of fraud are not punished – the problem will be worse in the 2024 and 2026 election cycles. Citizens’ trust in democracy will continue to erode, if not completely disappear.

It is up to the responsible institutions – the police, the prosecutor’s office and the courts of this country – to quickly and fully investigate the allegations of election fraud and impose the most severe punishments provided by law on those found guilty.

There is increasing evidence from investigations into the SKY and ANOM cases, which indicate that politicians from all political spheres, including law enforcement and security service employees and prosecutors, work for organized crime groups, not citizens. Groups like the Tito cartel, the Arnautović and Matković group, the Kelmendi drug cartel – take advantage of the weak state structure of BiH and political influence in state and entity institutions for their criminal activities. Money laundering, extortion, racketeering and drug trafficking – are not victimless crimes. Individuals suffer the consequences.

And organized crime groups and their corrupt patrons don’t just affect individuals. Their actions have a wider impact on society. They bring fear and violence, limit local control and personal independence, especially among the most vulnerable categories of society, because they limit the possibilities of legitimate economic activities, which in turn limit the possibilities of economic growth. In short, they contribute to the general decline in the quality of life. All this does not bring good to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, wherever they live in this country.

The vicious arms of these organized criminal groups extend far beyond Bosnia and Herzegovina – not only to the wider area of the Western Balkans, but also through the entire space of the transatlantic community. This is why the US Government supports the SKY and ANOM investigations wherever they lead.

High-level corruption often makes headlines and is a serious problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina – but corruption is not just about drug lords and politicians. It is present in the lives of the citizens of this country in countless and not so obvious, but equally harmful ways.

Mothers like Dzenana from Zenica are forced to pay bribes; huge sums of money to make sure that doctors will perform one of their most fundamental and most sacred duties – to help the baby come into this world. This practice is so widespread that some patients preemptively pay far more than the actual price for medical services to ensure proper care. It’s not a gift, it’s corruption.

Unfortunately, corruption has infected the entire healthcare system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it involves far more than medical workers who demand bribes in order to provide their services. Here, in Sarajevo, Suzana was deliberately misdiagnosed with cancer so that she would have to pay for an expensive operation. In addition, the illegal procurement of life-saving medical equipment has a direct, and possibly fatal, impact on patients. At the beginning of this year, the Institute of Health Insurance and Reinsurance of the FBiH had to complete the procedure for the procurement of dialysis machines after a two-year delay.

The Institute bypassed standard tender procedures and paid extremely high amounts for the procurement of equipment, which led to multimillion-dollar losses for the FBiH Government. After the reaction of activists who fight against corruption, a new procedure was initiated, in accordance with the law. Dialysis patients have suffered due to continuous delays in the procurement of equipment.

The United States is helping Bosnia and Herzegovina to decontaminate its health sector. For example, with the help of the US Government, Sarajevo Canton established a working group of experts in the field of health that works to improve transparency, the availability of information and to reduce corruption in high-risk sector areas, such as employment, work with prescription drugs and financing. But there is still much to be done throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Apart from providing vital services to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the public sector employs a very large number of people, but if you are looking for a job in public sector institutions, you may find it difficult to get a job unless you have the right political connections. You may find yourself in a situation like Bojan from Brčko, who spent eight years working for a public institution on a fixed-term contract because he was not a member of a political party that could secure him a full-time job. Bojan tried to fight back by suing his employer and the employer responded by not renewing his contract. It happens too often that recruitment procedures at all levels of government are not quality-based or transparent. As a result, people who have recently graduated from the Faculties of Economics or Law and are looking for a job in the profession, for a career and for a prosperous life in Bosnia and Herzegovina – cannot find a job that enables them to do it. Corruption – especially the system of political patronage that pervades BiH today – makes finding employment unnecessarily difficult, and in some cases even impossible. The result is wasted talent that many young people could offer to their country.

There are many young people who choose to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina instead of living with limited professional and economic opportunities.

About 55,000 people leave Bosnia and Herzegovina every year. Eight years ago, according to the 2013 census, BiH had about 3.5 million inhabitants. That number was probably lower, but regardless, experts believe that between 2.5 and 2.6 million people live in BiH today. This is a dramatic drop in just eight years. The main factor behind this exodus is corruption. It leaves BiH without human potential. There are many in the political class of Bosnia and Herzegovina who are very vocal about how they – and only they – can protect their fellow citizens of the same ethnicity, while the data tells us that they are not protecting anyone. Instead, with their corruption, they drive the people they supposedly protect out of the country.

And those who stay, perhaps starting their own business, will feel how corruption affects their lives. Corruption is a serious obstacle faced by business entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Business registration and permit collection procedures are too complicated and particularly fertile ground for corruption. It often happens that business entities are asked for bribes in order to obtain the necessary work permits and construction permits or just to speed up the process of issuing one or the other.

Politicians often resist efforts to simplify, direct and harmonize business procedures in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sometimes they justify it by claiming that the resistance is necessary, because they are protecting some ethnic equality or jurisdiction, but often this resistance is of a financial nature. The existing system may not be favorable to entrepreneurs and employees in the private sector, but it is profitable for politicians and senior officials. If the person running his/her business perseveres and goes through the maze and if he/she wants to do business with the authorities – at any level – instead of opportunity, he/she can be met by politicians and officials who award lucrative public procurement contracts not to the best bidder, but to the best connected bidder. The high price of all this is not only paid by the business owner; economic growth and development throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina suffers a negative impact.

Corruption affects both the quality of life of each individual and the life of the community. The large number of examples of illegal construction and abuse of the environment, which are a threat to the health and well-being of the citizens of BiH, is frustrating.

The lime factory in Kreševo started using prohibited fuels, endangering the families who have lived there for years and forcing them to leave. Marijana lives in Livno and worries every day that her family will be left without drinking water due to geological investigations and drilling that are taking place in her vicinity without the necessary permits. And in a village near Visegrad, Emin and his neighbors may have to move because of an illegal landfill, built without any permits, looming over their community and threatening their health.

There are many people and communities in a similar situation throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina who cannot resist so easily. Corrupt actors often threaten and intimidate citizens to ensure their silence. Letters are sent to international donors to discredit citizen groups, their employers are called demanding the firing of their employees who are civil activists, and frivolous and false lawsuits are filed to discourage citizens from fighting for their rights.

These are scenes from the mafia movies and not about a country ruled by law, while politicians and representatives of judicial institutions are doing too little to change things. As I mentioned before, they are too often part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Where it can, the US Government stands behind those who stand up to corruption. For example, in East Sarajevo, Sara and Sunčica, two young activists questioned the legality of the environmental permits issued to the company for the construction of mini-hydroelectric plants on the Kasindolska river. In response, the company retaliated against Sara and Sunčica with a lawsuit seeking to discredit them. With legal assistance provided by a civil society organization and supported by the US Government, these young women can fight back. The United States stands ready to help others do the same. Namely, this week we learned that, after years of fighting against irregularities and procedural errors, the activists in Mostar won because the proposed hydroelectric power plants on the Bunski canals were removed from the spatial plan of the city. Thanks to their work, with the support of the USA, the national ecological treasure that was threatened by corruption was protected.

The examples I presented today are, unfortunately, only small examples of the numerous ways in which citizens tolerate corruption. And citizens deserve better. They deserve an efficient, transparent, accountable and honest government. They deserve good governance, which means politicians and institutions focused on achieving concrete results that improve the lives of their constituents, rather than lining their own pockets or protecting organized criminals from the consequences of their actions.

We must work together to call out corruption when we see it and experience it; we must support the citizens who insist that it be stopped; we must demand that those who are part of it be punished; and we must hold accountable those who use public service for personal gain. The United States has used its sanctions to do just that, but we have also supported civil society organizations, community groups, investigative journalists and many others in Bosnia and Herzegovina in their fight against corruption.

The United States is determined to help Bosnia and Herzegovina secure its deserved place in the Euro-Atlantic community of nations. That starts with putting an end to corruption, which means that every day in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be an anti-corruption day.