It took 12 years for the Prosecutor’s Office of Sarajevo Canton to issue an order not to conduct an investigation against former federal minister Vahid Heća because of the “It is not too Late for a Better Life” campaign.

After 12 years of waiting, the Prosecutor’s Office of Sarajevo Canton issued an order not to conduct an investigation against the former Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vahid Hećo, who was reported by Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BIH) in 2010 for abusing the campaign “It is not too Late for a Better Life” which was paid with public money in the amount of over BAM 233,000 before the 2010 elections.

The purpose of the campaign was actually the promotion of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which the then minister belonged, and the information about who financed the campaign was hidden for a long time, given that the official response of the Government and the Ministry was that it was not financed by their means. Hećo initially claimed that he launched the campaign “at the request of the managers of certain companies that would finance the entire campaign, because they found interest in the projects.” In the end, it turned out that the money was given by mines belonging to Elektroprivreda BiH, whose directors during the affair publicly denied that they financed this campaign.

Nothing was done on this case for five years, because it is clear from the number of prosecution cases that it was formed in 2015. Since then, the suspects were interrogated, among whom, during that time, the key people of public companies from the Federation of BiH electricity sector, and in the end, an order was passed not to conduct the investigation. After 12 years, the Prosecutor’s Office concluded that this campaign, launched just before the 2010 elections, had nothing to do with the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but rather its goal was the promotion of public companies.

Even the director of RMU Breza, at the time, stated that thanks to that campaign, Elektroprivreda BiH invested 30 million BAM in the mine, and the Prosecutor’s Office concluded in its decision that because of everything, the mine’s investment in this campaign was justified. It is added that from the audit report of the Ministry, in which this campaign is not even mentioned because the ministry did not carry out the procurement, it is concluded that there are no signs of a criminal offense in the actions of the reported Vahid Hećo because the auditor had no objections to the financial operations.

The decision of the Prosecutor’s Office also states that the Ministry replied in November 2022 stating that it did not find the act of the then Minister Vahid Hećo from 2010 by which he officially launched the campaign, so it could not be formally linked to this case. TI BIH filed a complaint against this order with the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of Sarajevo Canton, because in the written correspondence from 2010, which TI BiH submitted with the criminal complaint, it is clearly stated that Hećo initiated the mentioned campaign.

The most alarming thing of all is that such evidence is being sought after 12 years and that it took so long for the prosecutor’s decision to be made in this case. TI BIH reminds that the impunity of such cases resulted in the mass withdrawal of money from the public sector to finance election campaigns, which has become an established practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina.