Legislators Ignore the Proposals of Employer Associations and NGOs

Banja Luka, 7^th March 2014 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) strongly condemns the decision of the Committee on Finances and Budget of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H to adopt the draft Law on public Procurement without the adoption of the Amendments submitted by the non-governmental sector, employers and some members of the Parliament.

TI BiH and other civil society organizations warned earlier that the adoption of this proposal of the Law, in its current form, would not provide adequate protection against corruption, as well as transparency, efficiency, and rational spending of public funds, and they submitted specific recommendations for its improvement. The fact that during the public debate 89 Amendments were received was supposed to ensure the adoption of the best possible solutions.

However, the Committee for Finances and Budget showed that the public debate, as many times before, was organized only to meet the form, and the received suggestions and comments have not been taken into consideration.

The fact that Boško Tomić, SNSD representative in the Parliament and Principal Deputy Chairman of the Committee, prior to the session of the Commission announced that SNSD would block the adoption of substantial Amendments to the draft Law, clearly stated that the decision had been made before the session of the Committee, and that SNSD with its conditioning captured the entire process of adoption of this important legal decision at the very beginning.

Legislators have once again demonstrated that the democratic processes in BiH still do not function, and that there is no willingness to involve public in decision-making process nor there is the intention to adopt the anti-corruption mechanisms and improve transparency in public procurement.