Mild Laws and Inefficiency in the Sanctioning of Conflict of Interest

Banja Luka, 29th April 2013. – The prevention of conflict of interest has experienced a serious decline during the reporting period, mainly due to the lack of political will to improve the existing legislation and the implementation of the law at all levels.

During the past 11 years since the Law on Conflict of Interest has been in force in the Governmental Institutions of BiH, four sets of Amendments to the Law on Conflict of Interest have been made and a circle of functions and persons to whom the Law applies has been constantly narrowing , which has weakened the effectiveness of this Law. The most drastic approach of the weakening of the Law has been presented in the new Amendments to the Law, adopted by the Council of Ministers, with the aim to politicize completely the decision-making process regarding the Conflict of Interest and liberalization of regulations. TI BiH responses and comments to the Institutions regarding this matter are available here.

At the level of the Federation of BiH, the activity on the harmonization of legislation in relation to the Laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also missing. At the level of the Republic of Srpska the changes to the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in the Governmental Institutions of the RS are in progress. Although some of the terms and regulations are better defined and clarified, crucial issues have not been adequately treated, especially in terms of compliance with the state law, and the sanctions are still not nearly in proportion to the damage which violators of the law can cause to the public resources and public interest.

The gap between  the sanctions and possible gain is evident in the example of the Central Election Commission, which has imposed, since the beginning of the application of the Law, 118 fines in the amount of 409.500,00KM, of which 88  were fully realized, while 10 of them have been paid consecutively, which altogether amounts to 267 380,00 KM.  In 2012, five of the sanctions were realized completely and three consecutively in the amount of 24.500 KM. Comparing budgetary inflows through payment of sanctions and damage caused by the conflict of interest of the public officials, often spoken of multi-million amounts in the media and other reports, disproportion in favor of those who are in the conflict of interest is more than evident. In 2012, Central Election Commission initiated only 13 procedures for determining conflict of interest. In six cases it was determined that there were no grounds for imposing sanctions and proceedings were terminated, while in seven cases the sanctions of ineligibility to stand for office of elected official, executive officeholder  or advisor for a period of four years were imposed. Out of seven imposed sanctions one or 14% was related to the official at the state level of government, one or 14% to the Cantonal level or 72% at the municipal level, which confirmed earlier findings that officials at lower levels of government are sanctioned mostly, while those at highest levels of government are protected.

At the level of Republic of Srpska, in 2012, out of 19 issued decisions, the Commission for determining Conflict of Interest enacted six decisions where conflict of interest was determined and 13 decisions of termination of the procedure.

Inefficiency in the law enforcement procedures at different levels of government, caused by vague and mild laws, that the legislators want to additionally derogate, characterize activities in prevention of conflict of interest in BiH. If the Amendments to the Law on Conflict of Interest at the state level are adopted in the emergency procedures, the conditions will worsen and conflict of interest will be legalised. Once again, TI BiH appeals to all relevant international and BiH institutions to prevent the complete destruction of the legal framework, and to put efforts into harmonization of the Law with applicable international standards and strengthening  the institutions that implement them.