‘No Progress ‘Report Again

Confirming warnings of the TI BiH the report also notes the devastation of the legal framework for the fight against corruption, primarily the Law on Financing of Political Parties and the Law on Conflict of Interest, which complicates situation additionally.

Not only that there is complete ineffectiveness in prosecuting corruption cases, also the law enforcement agencies and judiciary are under complete control of political parties, to which TI BiH has warned for years. Due to the lack of political will it was not possible to expect significant progress in the realization of Anti-Corruption Strategy and strengthening of the Anti-Corruption Agency, and is therefore reasonably concluded in the report that the country is still in the initial stage of the fight against corruption.

“There is no doubt that this report as confirms well that the country does not make any progress, but the situation has worsened. The leaders of the ruling political parties are only to blame for this situation, who would do anything to obstruct the implementation of reforms in the country in order to protect themselves from prosecution for numerous crimes of corruption that they committed and are still committing,” said Srđan Blagovčanin, the Executive Director of the TI BiH, on the occasion of publishing of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2013 Progress Report.

Interest groups and networks which include politicians, business sector and the media, as well as the control of the political parties over the institutions, as stated, at the very beginning reduce the ability to detect and sanction corruption, and destroy the integrity of the institutions.

In the future, TI BiH will in direct communication with the EU, with the support of the International Secretariat of TI, insist on concretization of the conditions and objectives of the EU towards BiH regarding fight against corruption and introduction of the rule of law. It is evident that the country is in a crucial stage, and any delay in taking urgent measures can lead to complete collapse of the institutional framework and constitutional order in the country with unforeseeable consequences. TI BiH will therefore insist on exact definition of the roadmap towards EU, with the concrete cases of political corruption that need to be prosecuted.  The EU has already introduced such practice in some countries of the Western Balkans as one of the stages of the stabilization and accession process, before beginning of any negotiation.

“Obviously, we are at the stage when progress in fight against corruption is not possible without opening of the big political corruption cases involving highest ranking governmental officials, who therefore are trying to block implementation of the reform, and keep judiciary and law enforcement agencies under control in order to prevent their prosecution. That is why we need the EU to make the exact roadmap and precise list of political corruption cases which have to be processed, as was the case in Serbia,” concluded Blagovčanin.