It is necessary to provide the financing and enable the work of the Anti-Corruption Agency

Sarajevo, December 12, 2011. – On the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day, celebrated around the world every year on 9^th December, Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) held the conference at the Parliamentary Assembly.

The first panel session was dedicated to the institutional context of anti-corruption in BiH and the region. The issue was discussed by Bozo Mihajlovic, Prosecutor from the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, Natasa Djurovic, Deputy Director of USKOK ( Croatia ), Branko Petric, President of the BiH Central Election Commission, Rok Praprotnik, Deputy Chief of Anti-Corruption Commission of Slovenia, and Cornelia Abel, Programme Coordinator for South-Eastern Europe, Transparency International.

At the very beginning of the conference, attendees were addressed by Peter Sorensen, the Head of the EU Delegation in BiH, emphasizing the necessity of implementing anti-corruption reforms as an essential condition to join the European Union. Sorensen also mentioned the lack of progress in the fight against corruption due to the lack of political will to take concrete measures, pointing out that political structures must act urgently if they want to catch up with countries in the region.

In the second panel discussion, the analysis of the implementation of BiH anti-corruption strategy was conducted by Sead Lisak, Director of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption of BiH, Vjekoslav Vukovic, Head of BiH Delegation to GRECO, Srdjan Blagovcanin, Executive Director of TI BiH and Brigitte Kuchar, EU Delegation/Programme Manager.

General conclusions of tthe discussion showed that BiH still lacks competencies of the law enforcement institutions, unlike Croatia and Slovenia, and that the legal framework must enable the judiciary and other institutions to freely investigate corruption cases and more effectively sanction perpetrators, and to strengthen the authority of institutions. The focus was on the Agency for Prevention and Coordination of Fight against Corruption, which still does not have capacity to work, and has not benn provided with the necessary resources. Public institutions were invited to urgently provide resources and facilitate the work of the Agency as well as the implementation of Anti-Corruption Strategy.

Participants agreed that BiH authorities have so far only formally dealt with the fight against corruption, while concrete action or results are still missing, and it is necessary to pressure the government to meet all requirements for EU membership since it seems to be the only motivation for action. Otherwise, the institutional system will collapse, and with constant delays in implementing reforms BiH multiplies commitments and efforts that will have to be invested later in order to catch up with the neighbouring countries.