Regional report on corruption in the defense system published: BiH has made progress, the greatest risk in public procurement

Banja Luka, 23. December 2020 – Bosnia and Herzegovina has made some progress in the fight against corruption in the defense and security system, but public procurement remains a huge risk of corruption. This was assessed in a study published by Transparency International Defense & Security for 15 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Banja Luka, 23. December 2020 – Bosnia and Herzegovina has made some progress in the fight against corruption in the defense and security system, but public procurement remains a huge risk of corruption. This was assessed in a study published by Transparency International Defense & Security for 15 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. These organizations, which are part of the global network of Transparency International, investigate corruption in the defense and security system, include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Poland, Serbia and Ukraine. According to the GDI Government Defense Integrity Index, half of these 15 countries face a high risk of corruption in the defense sector.

With a score of 57 out of a maximum of 100, BiH is classified in category C or one of the countries with a moderate risk of corruption. The biggest problem in BiH is the public procurement system, which is prone to corruption, which has long been pointed out by Transparency International in BiH, which also participated in collecting data for this regional survey. However, compared to the GDI Index published in 2015. year, in which BiH was placed in category D – a country with a high risk of corruption, it can be concluded that progress has been made.

This was influenced by the fact that parliamentary committees were partially granted access to confidential information, although this is still not satisfactory, and recent progress in strengthening the integrity and protection of whistleblowers through training of Defense Ministry and BiH Armed Forces staff has been noted.

The results of the analysis show that the average rating of the region is 48/100, which represents a high level of risk for corruption. Azerbaijan was rated the worst with only 15/100, mostly due to political reasons influencing the occurrence of corruption, and in our region, Montenegro received the worst rating of 32/100, mainly due to secret spending in the defense sector. On the other hand, the high level of transparency has placed Latvia in category B – a country with a low risk of corruption with by far the best score of 67/100.

The report says authoritarian governments have weakened parliamentary oversight of Poland’s defense sector, while restricting the right of access to information in Hungary. Similar trends are visible in the Balkans, where increasingly authoritarian governments in Serbia, Montenegro and Albania have been accused of capturing the state, corruption and abuse of power. It is added that in our region there are noticeable trends of erosion of the independent judiciary, attacks on independent media and civil society, as well as electoral manipulation, which together affect the creation of a climate that prevents the fight against corruption.

The Government Defense Integrity Index ( GDI ) is the most important risk assessment for corruption in the defense sector in the world. The index measures the existence, effectiveness and implementation of controls in five key risk areas for corruption.

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