Press releases

THE LAW ON DETERMINING THE ORIGIN OF PROPERTY AND THE SPECIAL TAX ON PROPERTY MUST NOT BE IN THE SERVICE OF POLITICAL REVANCHISM

Press releases ● 14 September 2021

The decisions from the Draft Law do not specify which persons would be subject to controls on the origin of property and according to which criteria, which leaves the fear of political abuse by selective application of the law. (more…)

TI BiH: The process of preparing key laws from the EU Opinion – a hypocritical farce

Press releases ● 16 July 2021

Banja Luka, 16. July 2021 – Key laws for strengthening the rule of law, listed as priority conditions in the Opinion of the European Union for BiH’s candidate status for EU membership – Election Law, Law on Public Procurement, Law on Conflict of Interest, Law on High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, and Law on protection of whistleblowers in FBiH, they have been in the process for a long time. The absence of real intention of the authorities to substantially improve the legal framework in these areas is confirmed by the fact that the procedure for the adoption of any of these laws has not been completed more than two years after the publication of the EC Opinion.

Instead of harmonizing the legal framework in these areas with international standards and the opinions of relevant bodies (Venice Commission, ODIHR), the authorities’ attention is focused on efforts to circumvent the essence of international standards and good practices, satisfying mere form and fighting for narrow party interests. At the same time, manipulation of procedures, obstructions, mutual accusations and blackmail of key political actors, in addition to causing unnecessary delays, undermine credibility and trust in the process itself. The work of the Parliamentary Assembly is practically blocked, and the Council of Ministers and the BiH Ministry of Justice are in the function of obstructing the process.

The painful atmosphere in which the Interdepartmental Working Group in charge of changing the election legislation works is additionally burdened by the fact that the CEC BiH is not involved in its work, as a key institution for conducting elections, which undoubtedly represents a serious but intentional omission. Messages sent openly by party leaders, but also by representatives of the international community, indicate that the work of this body only satisfies the form, while key changes to the Election Law will be negotiated behind closed doors by leaders of the three largest parties in BiH. . An additional problem lies in the fact that the inter-ministerial working group does not deal with the Law on Financing of Political Parties, which is also a condition from the EC opinion.

The Law on Conflict of Interest in BiH Institutions, in the drafting of which TI BiH also participated and which was positively assessed by all relevant international organizations, was sent in 2017. in the parliamentary procedure by a group of MPs in the House of Representatives, where at the end of 2020. finally adopted, but never adopted by the House of Peoples, due to inconsistencies in the amendments tabled in the parliamentary procedure. In the meantime, the Ministry of Justice drafted its own draft, which was assessed as inadequate in the recent opinion of the Venice Commission, and a whole set of recommendations for its improvement were given, which is yet to follow.

The Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, drafted by the Working Group for Amendments to this Law in 2018, is only in February 2021. adopted by the Council of Ministers, in an amended version, which goes in the direction of derogating from the originally proposed provisions, and then in June 2021. at the House of Representatives, still awaiting final adoption by the House of Peoples.

Announced as urgent changes and a transitional solution until the adoption of the new law, and aimed at improving integrity mechanisms, the amendments to the Law on the HJPC will soon mark two years since the establishment of the Working Group for its amendments. In the meantime, the proposed changes have been revised based on the opinion of the Venice Commission, and are in June 2021. adopted by the Council of Ministers and sent to the parliamentary procedure, with a very uncertain fate, given that the ministers coming from the SNSD did not support this draft. In addition, the adopted draft is not fully in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission, and still leaves room for arbitrary interpretations. The procedure of amending this law was extremely non-transparent, with the Ministry of Justice refusing to make the amended draft available to the public before its adoption at the CoM, while TI BiH waited another month after the draft was adopted for the Ministry of Justice to decide to submit the amendments.

The draft Law on the Protection of Corruption Reporters in the FBiH was adopted by the FBiH House of Representatives in June 2018. and has since been trapped in parliamentary procedure between the two houses of the Federation Parliament, without any government action to unlock this process.

The fact that the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH since the publication of the opinion of the EC 2019. adopted only two laws (not counting the nine laws on amendments and two laws on the budget), and none of them related to the priorities of the Opinion, confirms the need to change the current approach. In the current atmosphere of manipulation of reform processes, which are used to further collapse the legal and institutional framework, and mutual insults and accusations and even calls for physical confrontations, which is most visible from the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group for Amendments to Electoral Legislation, it is difficult to expect constructive progress.

TI BiH therefore urges civil society, the international community and opposition political parties to use all available means to put additional pressure on the ruling coalition to unblock the work of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly and ensure the credibility of the EU Opinion.

Press rls-16.07.2021

Semi-annual report of the TI BiH Legal Aid Center: Citizens are increasingly victims of corruption, most reports on the work of state administration

Press releases ● 15 July 2021

Banja Luka, 15. July 2021 – In the first six months of this year, the Center for Free Legal Aid in the Fight against Corruption Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) acted in 135 cases on citizens’ complaints, while in the same period 769 citizens applied to TI BiH through a free corruption reporting line 0800 55555.

As in previous years, most cases concerned the public administration sector (66 reports) and the judiciary (18), while this year the health sector is an area with an increase in the number of applications compared to last year, which can be explained by the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. and the pressure it has put on the health sector.

What is worrying is the number of reports of victims of corruption, which is almost 50% of all reports, while compared to last year there is an increase in the number of reports of whistleblowers or people who report corruption from their immediate work environment.

In this period, the Center for Free Legal Aid initiated 5 administrative disputes against public bodies due to denial of the right to access information of public importance, while in this period 5 judgments of competent courts were passed in favor of TI BiH, in disputes against: Republic Administration for Geodetic and property and legal affairs of the RS, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the RS, the City of Banja Luka, Gas-Res doo Banja Luka and the Public Institution Elementary School “Aleksa Santic” Banja Luka. There are also two recommendations of the Institutions of the Human Rights Ombudsman of BiH, which were issued on the petitions of the Center, and which relate to human rights violations.

TI BiH has launched many initiatives to improve the legal framework in various areas, the most important of which are proposals to improve the legal protection of persons reporting corruption to the RS Ministry of Justice, as well as proposals for the Draft Law on Freedom of Access to Information to the BiH Ministry of Justice.

The RS Ministry of Education and Culture, the Republic Pedagogical Institute and MPs in the RS National Assembly received proposals for changes to the law in the field of school management in Republika Srpska, with the aim of eliminating corruption risks, thus starting the “Politicians Get Out of Class” campaign. The initiative has aroused great interest in the public, since it aims to depoliticize schools, reducing the importance of the Ministry, ie the Government, when appointing the director of school institutions.

TI BiH filed a complaint with the inspection bodies in Tuzla Canton against the director of the American University (AU), who was subsequently arrested for trying to collect additional costs from students. In a similar way, after the involvement of TI BiH in the case, a verdict was pronounced against the former dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica, who was found guilty of negligent work in the service for refusing to announce a competition for an assistant professor.

Ti BiH also participated in the case of detecting illegal activities in the Public Institution Institute for Emergency Medical Aid of Sarajevo Canton. Director Adem Zalihić and the Managing Board of the Institute increased the salaries of certain employees of the Institute by illegal decisions, and the TI BiH also informed the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of KS.

Corruption whistleblowers who address TI BiH most often point to rigged competitions in public institutions, non-transparent practices in the allocation of public funds, inefficient work of inspection bodies, as well as lengthy court proceedings. It is becoming more and more common for public competitions in institutions to be annulled only in order to hire a predetermined candidate.

TI BiH Center for Legal Aid in the Fight against Corruption provides advisory legal assistance to whistleblowers, and initial contact with citizens is made through the toll-free number 0800 55555. TI BiH especially invites whistleblowers, or persons who report corruption from their immediate work environment, to turn in case they need legal support.

Press rls-15.07.2021

Venice Commission confirms TI BiH warnings: Law on conflict of interest needs to be substantially improved

Press releases ● 08 July 2021

Banja Luka, 8. July 2021 – Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) calls on the Ministry of Justice of BiH to substantially improve the Law on Conflict of Interest because the Venice Commission confirmed all the shortcomings that TI BiH pointed out in February this .

The ministry then rejected all key proposals that would lead to the improvement of the law in this area and did not give up its intention to reverse the existing law and establish even lower standards than those that exist now.

In the end, the Venice Commission pointed out all the shortcomings of the law that was sent to the procedure by the Ministry of Justice of BiH, which TI BiH also pointed out publicly and through the “eConsultation” platform.

In the published opinion, the commission proposes to expand the definition of “close relatives” and “related persons” as well as to include information on the property of family members in the property records of officials.

Also, the Venice Commission confirmed that the law is deficient in the part concerning the work of the Commission for Deciding on Conflict of Interest, where it proposes to ensure the independence of the commission from the political influence of the ruling majority and abandon the ethnic principle of decision-making. We remind you that the Ministry proposed that the Commission consists of 10 members, for whom conditions are not provided that would not come from political parties, and it is envisaged that decisions of importance in the first round of decision-making are made unanimously.

The opinion especially points out that the appointed officials must be prevented from performing double functions, as well as from being owners or directors of private companies that do business with institutions at lower levels of government, which TI BiH specifically pointed out.

-Zthe ban on parallel employment or business activities for appointed officials should be almost absolute and include a ban on state-level officials from running companies in business with the entity or cantonal administration, as well as a ban on running companies that benefit from public money, stated in the opinion of the Venice Commission.

All this was proposed by TI BiH in February this year, and this whole situation could have been avoided if a solution had been adopted, which has been in the parliamentary procedure for years and for which most international organizations gave a positive opinion, and which was supported by the House of Representatives last year. PS BiH.

However, TI BiH points out that there is a great risk that the legislators will use the opinion of the Venice Commission in the part in which it requests separate treatment of elected and appointed officials to weaken the mechanisms for preventing conflicts of interest, primarily related to members of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. in terms of incompatibility and sanctions. BiH has long been described as a captive state, where decisions at the highest level are made on the basis of individual interests, and elected officials directly influence the most important decisions in the country and appoint key people to BiH institutions. sanctions have had devastating effects on already almost non-existent mechanisms for preventing conflicts of interest.

Press rls-08.07.2021

TI BiH sent an initiative to the RS Ministry of Education and Culture: Exclude policy from school management

Press releases ● 29 June 2021

Banja Luka, 29. June 2021 – Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BIH) sent an initiative to the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska to amend the existing laws on primary and secondary education in order to reduce political influence on the election process and the work of school governing bodies.

TI BiH Center for Legal Aid in the Fight against Corruption receives an increasing number of complaints from teachers, parents and students who are dissatisfied with frequent changes in teaching staff, lack of competition in employment, nepotism and increasingly obvious examples of party employment in schools in Republika Srpska.

Due to these phenomena that negatively affect the quality of education and which recently led to protests from parents and even boycotts of teaching, TI BiH sent an initiative to the authorities with the aim of considering a different model of management in school institutions.

The initiative proposed a package of measures aimed at reducing the impact of policies in school management and establishing the principles of merits, quality and democratic control. Some of the measures include:

• Provide that the School Board as a heterogeneous and participatory governing body has a key role to play in the selection and appointment of primary and secondary school principals. Prior or subsequent approval may be required from the Minister, but the School Board must play a key role.
• Introduce as an obligation that candidates for the position of director must submit with the application for the competition a proposal of the work program for the term of office for which they are applying. Require candidates to submit a work program proposal to the School Board.
• Provide that the School Board must request an expert opinion on the quality of the work program of the candidate for the position of director from the Republic Pedagogical Institute.
• Exclude the Government from the decision-making process or the procedure for electing and appointing school principals.
• Limit the director’s term to a maximum of two consecutive terms, or anticipate that a maximum of two five-year terms are possible at all.
• The term of office should be five years as a form of guarantee of political neutrality.

The initiative was also sent to members of the Education Committee of the RS National Assembly, all parliamentary clubs and the RS Republic Pedagogical Institute, thus launching an advocacy campaign called “Politicians, get out of class!” With the aim of eliminating corruption risks in educational institutions.

Due to growing dissatisfaction with the quality of education, TI BiH expects the authorities to consider the proposed solutions and initiate procedures to amend the law in order to achieve a better model of school management in the Republika Srpska through a public debate that should include the academic community.

Press rls-29.06.2021

International Whistleblower Day: Urgently adopt FBiH law and strengthen legal protection of whistleblowers

Press releases ● 23 June 2021

TI BiH notes that only every tenth whistleblower in Bosnia and Herzegovina can use legal protection mechanisms because the current laws do not recognize them because they do not provide sufficiently broad and strong protection!

Banja Luka, 23. June 2021 – Today, Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) marks the International Day of Whistleblowers or Persons Reporting Corruption from Their Work Environment. The fight against corruption is inconceivable without brave individuals who, by sharing knowledge about the work they do, reveal corruption scandals or prevent major abuses of power in a timely manner. Whistleblowers are often faced with retaliatory measures such as professional degradation, disciplinary prosecution, mobbing, expulsion from the professional environment, etc. due to the reports they submit.

The Global Transparency Movement (TI) on this day reminds all governments around the world of the need to provide special legal protection for whistleblowers to protect these individuals and their families from the retaliation they suffer as they choose to report corruption. TI BiH reminds that the Law on Protection of Persons Reporting Corruption has not yet been adopted in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and calls on members of the FBiH Parliament and political leaders to adopt this law as soon as possible. Currently, persons employed in the private or public sector in the FBiH who report corruption do not enjoy adequate legal protection in the event that harmful actions are taken against them simply because they have pointed out irregularities in their work.

According to TI global data, in the first six months of this year alone, nearly 2,000 people in 60 countries requested legal support from TI Centers for Legal Aid in the Fight against Corruption due to reports of corruption related to COVID-19. As expected, the pandemic increased the number of reports to the health sector, and people usually complained about difficult access to health services and medical equipment, which was partially disrupted by the creation of corrupt networks that used the health crisis to illegally increase profits.

TI BiH notes that only every tenth whistleblower in Bosnia and Herzegovina can use legal protection mechanisms because the current laws do not recognize them because they do not provide sufficiently broad and strong protection. It is necessary to improve the legal regulations at the level of Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina by expanding the definition of corruption, to protect all persons who report irregularities related to corruption or threats to public health or environmental protection, as well as to eliminate the procedure. make harmful actions more efficient. Whistleblowers must be provided with timely protection, immediately after filing a corruption complaint.

Press rls-23.06.21

Public debate on the occasion of the International Whistleblower Day

Press releases ● 21 June 2021

Banja Luka, 21. June 2021 – On the occasion of 23. June, International Whistleblower Day , Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) and UG “Why not” organize a public debate on ” Why is it necessary to ensure legal protection of those who report corruption ?”. The debate will discuss the existing models of whistleblower protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with special reference to the Federation of BiH, where a special law regulating the protection of these persons has not yet been adopted.

The debate will be attended by members of the FBiH Parliament, on whom the adoption of the law depends, lawyers, representatives of civil society, journalists, as well as the whistleblower who is currently in the process of protection.

A public debate will be held in Tuesday, 22. June, in Banja Luka, at the Hotel Bosna, starting at 11 am. Press statements are scheduled for 10:50 p.m. All valid epidemiological measures will be complied with.

Press rls-21.06.21

In two years, BiH has met only one of the 14 EU priorities, the European path completely blocked

Press releases ● 28 May 2021

Sarajevo, May 28, 2021 – In two years, Bosnia and Herzegovina has fulfilled only one of the 14 priorities it must meet on the European path, all other processes are completely blocked and the adoption of key laws that would contribute to the rule of law and the fight against corruption is obstructed. This is the main message from the conference “Two years later: Commission Opinion on BiH’s application for EU membership” organized by Transparency International in BiH (TI BIH) on the occasion of the second anniversary of the European Commission’s Opinion on BiH’s application for membership.

TI BIH presented a report at the conference which shows that in two years BIH managed to form a Parliamentary Stabilization and Association Committee, which adopted its rules of procedure, so that only formal preconditions were created for meeting this priority.

-Everything else from the opinion of the European Commission has not been realized in its entirety, and apart from issues concerning changes to the constitution and on which it is not possible to reach a political agreement, it is completely evident that the authorities are obstructing the resolution of issues. that there is no justification. What is worrying are systemic obstructions and efforts to avoid the purpose of passing these laws through numerous attempts to adopt solutions that would be worse than the existing ones, the rating is TI BIH.

Swedish Ambassador to BiH Johanna Strömquist assessed that BiH has made very little progress in the EU integration process, which is why it suffers.

-Young and talented people are leaving the region to settle in the EU because they are tired of corruption, weak rule of law, education and health care systems. If the countries of the Western Balkans made reforms in the EU integration process, they might stay, said Strömquist.

The EU Delegation to BiH says there has been no adoption of key reform laws that could contribute to the rule of law and the fight against corruption.

– BiH must make more efforts to accelerate the European path in several specific issues. It is necessary to adopt the Law on Conflict of Interest, amendments to the Law on the HJPC as well as the improvement of the Law on Public Procurement, Krassimir Nikolov, Head of the Section for European Integration, Political and Economic Affairs, EU Delegation to BiH, said at the conference.

Also, the conference concluded that no laws have been adopted that would allow elections to be conducted in line with European standards and recommendations of the OSCE / ODIHR and the Venice Commission. Under the pretext of unresolved constitutional issues, changes in the election legislation that would prevent election fraud, theft of votes, misuse of public resources and illegal financing of political parties are also avoided.

Only five priorities from the Opinion of the European Commission have been partially realized or started to be fulfilled, action plans for public administration reform have been adopted and BiH managed to hold elections in Mostar after 12 years. It was concluded at the conference that the process of BiH’s integration into the EU has been essentially completely stopped, and if the fulfillment of 14 priorities would take place with this dynamics, it could take several decades.

Press-rls_28.5.2021

The analysis of the process of BiH’s integration into the EU: 14 priorities from the Opinion of the European Commission 2 years later , which offers a cross-section of BiH’s progress in meeting the priorities, can be downloaded below:

NGOs condemn Dodik’s attacks and the labeling of Tanja Topic

Press releases ● 25 May 2021

Yesterday, the member of the Presidency of BiH, Milorad Dodik, called the Banja Luka political analyst Tanja Topic an agent of the German BND and a quisling, with plenty of insults directed at her. In addition, he insulted her family, and at the same time endangered her safety by the threats he made. (more…)

Transparency International in BiH presented recommendations for improving the election legislation

Press releases ● 21 May 2021

At today’s conference, Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) presented the results of the monitoring of the election campaign for the Local Elections 2020. as well as recommendations for improving the legal framework in the field of electoral legislation.

At the conference, which was organized on the occasion of the announced changes in the election legislation aimed at strengthening the integrity of the election process, it was said that the current legal framework allows for numerous manipulations, election fraud and misuse of public resources in the campaign. Therefore, it was emphasized that the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group for Amendments to the Election Legislation must be open to the public, and the announced changes must include solutions that will enable more transparent campaign financing and prevent numerous manipulations and distortions of voters.

Eric Nelson, the US ambassador to BiH, said that some political leaders in BiH are consistently obstructing election and other reforms for their own interests. He supported the work of TI BiH, saying that there is an urgent need to update the legal framework governing elections, as insufficient oversight too often results in fraud and manipulation.

Johann Sattler, Special Representative and Head of the EU Delegation to BiH, called on the members of the Interdepartmental Working Group to start work on the reform of election laws, which is one of the 14 priorities for EU membership.

“It is crucial that, in addition to civil society organizations, the Central Election Commission of BiH be included in the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group, and that their proposals for improving the election legislation be accepted,” Sattler pointed out.

Srdjan Blagovcanin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TI BiH, underlined the worrying data observed during the long-term monitoring of election processes in BiH, which is that the cost of public procurement of all authorities in BiH increases by 40% in the election year.

“This must stop in order to open BiH’s European path.” We have a completely clear direction and recommendations of international organizations, “Blagovcanin pointed out. Therefore, TI BIH proposes limiting public spending and employment in the public sector during the pre-election period, giving clear competencies to the CEC to audit campaign expenditures and introducing stricter sanctions for violations of the law.

The President of the Central Election Commission of BiH, Zeljko Bakalar, pointed out that the CEC will use the legal right and propose solutions that will prevent election manipulations, regulate the work of polling stations and finance the election campaign. Therefore, he expressed regret that the CEC does not participate in the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group for Amendments to the Election Law, which for him is “a political decision of actors who do not show political will for radical change.”

The monitoring of last year’s elections conducted by TI BIH showed that the parties concealed real sources of income, that campaign expenses were expressed in significantly lower amounts than those determined by advertising monitoring and that public resources were used to promote individual parties and candidates. All this indicates the need to change the laws that regulate the election process and the area of financing political parties.

Civil society organizations Ministry of Justice of BiH: Withdraw the Pre-Draft Law on Freedom of Access to Information for processing

Press releases ● 17 March 2021

Civil society organizations call on the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Ministry) to withdraw the Draft Law on Freedom of Access to Information for revision because it is not in line with international standards and best practices. (more…)

In the years of the pandemic, the most reports of corruption are related to the state administration, judiciary and health

Press releases ● 11 March 2021

During the past year, the largest number of corruption reports received at the Transparency International Legal Aid Center in BiH (TI BiH) concerned the public administration, justice and health sectors. (more…)

Transparency International in BiH starts cooperation with local governments in BiH with the aim of strengthening citizen participation in decision-making

Press releases ● 10 March 2021

At today’s conference, Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) presented the results of research on proactive transparency and direct participation of citizens in local government decision-making and announced the development of an online platform for consultation and communication between local authorities and citizens. (more…)

Conference on Public Procurement Held in BiH: Strengthening Oversight Key to Preventing Corruption

Press releases ● 03 March 2021

Sarajevo, 3. March 2021 – Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BIH) organized a conference “Improvement of the Public Procurement System in Bosnia and Herzegovina ” on which the topic was the current proposal for amendments to the Law on Public Procurement adopted by the BiH Council of Ministers in February this year.

Transparency International in BiH welcomed the adopted changes as it started the process of improving this area, but suggested that sanctions for violating the law be tightened so that they would serve to deter actors from illegal activities. Also, TI BiH proposes to strengthen the capacity of the BiH Public Procurement Agency already now, as well as to enable mechanisms for monitoring and supervision over the entire process. In addition, there is room to improve transparency, especially those of public procurement procedures that take place under accelerated procedures. TI BiH’s proposals also went in the direction of strengthening mechanisms for the prevention of corruption and the prevention of conflicts of interest.

– Our proposal focused on increasing the transparency of the public procurement process and we insisted on strengthening the integrity of mechanisms for preventing conflicts of interest that are in line with EU directives, said Aleksandra Martinovic, chairwoman of the Transparency International Assembly in BiH.

It was pointed out at the conference that the amendments to the existing law are only the first step in the field of corruption prevention in this area in order to unblock the process of European integration, but that the adoption of a new law in the coming period is necessary.

The Ambassador of the United States of America to BiH, Eric Nelson, welcomed the efforts to improve the Law and expressed satisfaction with the inclusion of the non-governmental sector in the process. However, he stressed that BiH is the second most corrupt country in Europe, a major obstacle to the country’s progress.

More than three billion KM is spent on procurement in BiH each year, meaning hundreds of millions of marks are likely to be lost due to mismanagement, corruption and other illegal activities. That money, which comes from BiH taxpayers, could be better used to improve the lives of BiH citizens, rather than enriching corrupt officials and their friends.

Johan Sattler, Special Representative of the EU Delegation to BiH, also addressed the audience, emphasizing that a large amount of money is lost in BiH due to corruption in public procurement and stressed that the amendment to the Law on Launching BiH’s Right to EU Integration. It was emphasized that the improvement of this Law is one of the 14 key priorities identified by the European Union in its Opinion on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s application for membership.

Director of the Public Procurement Agency of BiH Tarik Rahić explained that the three key amendments to the law relate to the consolidation of public procurement plans, preliminary market checks and digitalization of the entire process according to EU standards.

The representative of the BiH Complaints Review Office, Siniša Tešanović, pointed out that the proposed changes did not offer a solution that would reduce the large number of unfounded complaints, which would improve the work of the KRC. Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly Dusanka Majkic and Predrag Kozul, as well as the Directorate for European Integration Amira Lazovic, agreed that the law could be improved by amending the parliamentary procedure.

The BiH Ministry of Justice is persistently trying to reverse the Law on Conflict of Interest

Press releases ● 19 February 2021

The BiH Ministry of Justice rejected two-thirds of the proposals submitted by Transparency International to BiH through e-consultations on the draft Law on Conflict of Interest. All key proposals that would lead to the improvement of this area, which is required of BiH by the European Union, were rejected, and the Ministry obviously does not give up its intention to reverse the existing law and establish even lower standards than we have now. (more…)

Civil society organizations have written to the BiH Ministry of Justice, asking for changes to the Law on Freedom of Access to Information

Press releases ● 09 February 2021

Public institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina currently have no legal obligation to publish information of public interest, and the struggle of citizens, NGOs and the media to publish it often takes years. Therefore, civil society organizations in BiH sent an initiative to the competent institutions with a request to amend the Law on Freedom of Access to Information in BiH as soon as possible.

The main goal of the initiative is to introduce the principle of proactive transparency in the law, where clear standards would be established, including a catalog of information that all public institutions will have to publish on their websites. In addition, this principle envisages the consistent application of the law through strengthening the capacity of civil servants acting in accordance with the law, but also the establishment of effective supervision over compliance with the law and the introduction of sanctions for violating it.

In BiH, currently public institutions do not publish numerous information on spending budget money, public companies hide data on operations, and judicial institutions information on completed court proceedings. Most of this information should be made public, because long-term lawsuits for their delivery prevent the timely reaction of the public, which often causes damage to the interests of citizens.

Therefore, civil society organizations remind that one of the planned measures of the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform for the period 2018-2022 refers to increasing the availability of information where the principle of maximum transparency should be respected. Also, BiH is 2014. joined the Open Government Partnership Initiative (OGP Initiative), which is based on the idea that open government is more accessible and accountable to citizens. BiH is still 2012. ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents , which encourages public authorities to publish official documents on their own initiative whenever possible, thus promoting transparent and efficient public administration.

That is why BiH civil society organizations invite authorized nominators at all levels of government, primarily the BiH Ministry of Justice, to prepare a proposal for a new Law on Freedom of Access to Information, respecting SIGMA’s principles for public administration relating to proactive transparency, as well as the Council Convention. Europe on access to official documents, and strategic commitments from public administration reform and the OGP Initiative.

The law should define the obligation to proactively publish operational information, information on organizational structure, budget and other information on the work of public authorities. A narrow range of exceptions to access to information should also be clearly defined, with a mandatory public interest test. Civil society organizations are also proposing the introduction of inspections and sanctions in case of non-compliance with legal provisions, as the current law does not have a disincentive effect on public institutions that hide information of public importance.

The initiative was signed by: Transparency International in BiH, Advisory Council of the Open Government Partnership Initiative, Association of BH Journalists, Center for Investigative Journalism, Center for Civic Advocacy, Sarajevo Open Center, UG Why Not, BH Foreign Policy Initiative, Center for the Promotion of Civil Society and the United Women Foundation Banja Luka.

Press rls_9_2_2021 – FOIA Amendment Initiative

• Initiative to amend FOIA_Federal Ministry of Justice
• Initiative for change of FOIA_Ministarstvo pravde BiH
• Initiative for change of FOIA_Ministry of Justice of RS