Increasing Number of Reports on Corruption

Banja Luka, 4th September 2012 – During the period from the 1st January to the 30th June 2012 Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) of Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina has received 112 civil complaints on the work of state authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is 35% more than last year. The highest number of reported cases, during this period, is related to the public administration sector (12%), followed by property rights (10.7%), education and access to information (9%) conflict of interest, and construction ⁄ public works.

As well as in the past two years, most of the reports in all areas were related to the irregularities and abuses in employment, where the apparent bias in the selection of candidates for various positions was noticed. The highest number of reports, even ten, refers to irregularities in conduction of competition for civil servants at all levels of the government, and employment of the staff in public enterprises and institutions. Also, three reports on irregular undergoing of appointments at all levels were received.  On the other hand, there were cases where the conditions for competitions were adjusted to pre-selected candidates.

It was noticed that the authorities do not inform people who have not passed the competitive hiring process, so that they do not provide a legal remedy in statutory time limit, during which it is possible to realize legal protection of their rights, and it is impossible to find out the criteria by which an applicant was appointed to the civil service and whether the same can satisfy conditions of the competition. In one of these cases, after a month of requesting the information, TI BiH received a response from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management that the evaluation of the candidates in the interviews was carried out in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, which was not available anywhere and that “the score given by each individual member of the committee is a secret“, which certainly leaves space for arbitrary evaluation.

TI BiH has continued focusing on conflicts of interest at various levels of government. Apart from keeping track on the 7 cases launched in 2012, in the first half of 2012 two new allegations on conflict of interest were submitted and forwarded to the Central Election Commission.  However, after submitting these reports, it is very difficult to get information on the actions taken in determining the existence of conflicts of interest. Therefore, TI BiH filed a complaint for not allowing insight into the case and  for exclusion of information in the case of determining conflict of interest of Nermin Niksic, for whom TI BiH was the one who filed a complaint to the Central Election Commission of BiH because the Prime Minister of FBiH signed a decree about appointing his brother to the position of Acting Executive Director of the public company ’’Federation Highways’’.

In Republic of Srpska, acting on a complaint by Transparency International BiH, RS Supreme Court has established the existence of conflict of interest in the case of Zvornik Municipal Assembly member, and ordered the Republic Commission for determining conflict of interest in institutions of RS to reopen the procedure, determine the existence of conflict of interest and to impose corresponding sanctions. These sanctions have not been implemented towards the elected official.

Despite the increase in the number of complaints is noticeable, citizens requests are still being visibly ignored by the institutions, for which citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina address TI BiH, asking t for help in dealing with public institutions. An increasing number of received complaints indicates to the greater willingness of citizens to fight for their rights and oppose corruption, which is one of the main prerequisites for holding the government accountable to citizens, and TI BiH again invites all of those who were witnesses or victims of corruption to report all irregularities to the institutions or through the toll-free phone line 0800 55555.