HALF OF THE PROSECUTORS IN BIH WITHOUT AN INVESTIGATION FOR HIGH CORRUPTION – A SERIOUS BLOW TO THE RULE OF LAW

Sarajevo, June 28, 2024 – Half of the prosecutor’s offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina have not initiated a single investigation into criminal acts of high corruption in three years, according to an analysis presented by Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) today in Sarajevo. Only one out of nine prosecutors working on cases of economic crime and corruption in 2023 launched an investigation for high corruption, or only 11 percent.

The poor indicators of the judiciary work in combating high corruption are complemented by the fact that in nine out of a total of 18 prosecutor’s offices in BiH (Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of Bosansko Podrinje Canton, Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of West Herzegovina Canton, Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of Canton 10, Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of Posavina Canton, District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Prijedor, District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Banja Luka, District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Doboj, District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina and District Public Prosecutor’s Office in East Sarajevo), not a single investigation was initiated for criminal acts of high corruption in the period from 2021 to 2023. Although it was expected that the responsibility for prosecuting high corruption in the Republic of Srpska would be transferred from the district prosecutor’s offices to the Special Department of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic, the fact that this institution in a period of three years had only four reports and three indictments for high corruption speaks of the general lack of results.

In addition to the fact that corruption is not prosecuted, the penal policy for most serious crimes is too lenient, from 2021 to 2023, within the framework of 18 convictions in cases of high corruption, the courts in BiH imposed prison sentences in only 11 cases, while in 7 judgments a suspended sentence was imposed.

These data were presented in the “Analysis of the Efficiency of the Prosecution of High-Level Corruption” presented during the conference “How to More Successfully Prosecute Cases of Corruption” held in Sarajevo. Ambassador of Norway in Bosnia and Herzegovina H.E. Olav Reinertsen said at the opening of the conference that civil society has a key role in monitoring the government, informing citizens and ensuring the implementation of legal provisions.

“After decades of investment and learning, we continue to witness the key role that civil society plays in monitoring the work of the government, informing citizens and ensuring the implementation of the law. The rule of law is not only about institutions and new laws, but also about the people who implement and respect them. This requires continuous supervision, responsibility and commitment to achieving higher quality and greater efficiency. Corruption undermines the integrity of institutions and represents an obstacle to progress, which is why the fight against it is necessary for the stability and prosperity of BiH”, Reinertsen said.

“The diagnosis of the state of the judiciary has been clear for years, if not decades – the state of complete institutional capture of the judiciary by political elites and organized crime that work in symbiosis.” Unfortunately, as a reaction to this complex problem, we have faking of judicial reform, which quite expectedly results in a further deterioration of the situation in the judiciary,” said Srđan Blagovčanin, chairman of the TI BiH Board of Directors, during his address.

High-level corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina is generally not prosecuted, and when it does happen, the judiciary in BiH mainly solves minor cases, while large corruption cases often go unanswered, and all this is accompanied by a disproportionately mild punishment policy. Such a situation, in addition to seriously undermining trust in the judiciary, which is full of scandals, leads to the destruction of institutions, the establishment of complete political and clientelistic control over them, which leads to the ultimate destruction of the concept of the rule of law, is one of the messages of the conference.

The presented results of the judiciary work in the prosecution of criminal offenses of corruption only confirm the findings of the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) research for 2023, which shows that BiH has the lowest score in the Western Balkan region and is significantly declining in terms of the degree of corruption perception, losing seven CPI points in the last decade.

The conference, organized by Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the SMART Balkan project funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, gathered representatives of the judiciary and other relevant actors with the aim of developing concrete solutions for the efficiency of judicial processes in BiH.