Judiciary in BiH is still ineffective in prosecuting corruption

Banja Luka, June 16, 2011. – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) carried out a new analysis of prosecuting corruption in the courts and prosecutor’s offices in BiH for 2010. The analysis included available data on the number of investigations and convictions for crimes of corruption as well as on the reports on the work of the judiciary and the implementation of the law on confiscation of illegally acquired assets.

Data on the investigation initiated by prosecutors in BiH, indicate that, compared to 2009. there was  a reduction  in the total number of investigations, which also applies to investigations of corruption and criminal acts against official duties.

On the other hand, it is indicative, that comparing the number of reports with the number of investigations we get to the data that almost a third of reported acts of corruption completes with an investigation. A large number of rejected reports points to the poor quality of the collected evidence or to inadequate use of special investigative procedures that would lead to the indictment.

It is important to emphasize that the proportion of investigations, relating to criminal offenses of corruption, is extremely small in comparison with the total number of investigations, it is only 2%. On the other hand, although the number of indictments for corruption and abuse of a position increased over the previous year, still, their proportion of 1,5 % of the total number of indictments is unsatisfactory.

When it comes to the final outcome of indictment, i.e, court rulings, there is a noticeable stagnation in the work of courts, given that the number of acquittals and decisions of suspension has increased and nearly the same number of acquittals and convictions has been adopted as in 2009. When it comes to offenses related to corruption, still, their proportion of convictions for these crimes in the total number of convictions is less than 1%. This confirms that the number of convictions for corruption is still very low, and that in any case does not provide an adequate response from institutions to more dramatic level of corruption in the country.

On the other hand, there is a fact that, still, there haven’t been any convictions in the investigations that were being conducted against high-ranking officials, but these rulings are relating mainly to the cases of so called “ Petty’ corruption. This does not favor either the recent transfer of the investigation of corruption at the highest levels of government from state prosecutor’s office to lower instances, which in particular shows that the judiciary in BiH is yielding to political pressure and lacks in willingness to grapple with the prosecution of persons of authority.

The only progress was achieved through increasing the prison sentences imposed in cases of abuse of official position. However, when it comes to classic works of corruption, such as giving and receiving bribes, penal policy, they still have not changed, since two prison sentences were imposed for these offenses, and even 7 were suspended sentences. This statistic confirms earlier warnings of TI BiH that such penal policy cannot bring significant results to combat corruption and moreover, it has a stimulating effect on offenders.

Regarding the confiscation of illegally acquired assets, during 2010,. the property  was seized in approximately 220 cases amounting to about 17 million KM, of which 10 million was seized by the decisions of the Court BiH. However, there are still no information about how much are the amounts seized in criminal cases of corruption.

All these mentioned figures show that commitment and willingness of institutions still haven’t been shown in sanctioning corruption in an adequate way.

On the other hand, reports on the progress of BiH, that the European Commission publishes year by year, just highlight the need for more decisive prosecution of corruption, which is one of the key factors for the progress of BiH towards the European Union. When the results of research of citizen’s perception on corruption are added, which indicates not only their concern about corruption, but also a growing loss of their trust in judicial institutions, it is clear that it is high time for the judiciary in BiH to take more active role to combat corruption and to show greater efficiency in its prosecution, especially when it comes to corruption at higher levels of authority.