PRESS RELEASES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Prevent the repeal of the HJPC Rulebook on Conflict of Interest

Press releases ● 25 November 2014

Banja Luka, 25. November 2014 – Transparency International of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers that the proposal to repeal the newly adopted Rulebook on Conflict of Interest of Members of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, ie the amendment of Article 4. of this Ordinance, is an attempt to avoid sanctions for conflict of interest through amendments or repeal of the Ordinance, in which, according to media reports, Jovan Čizmović, one of the members of the Council.

Namely, the disputed Article 4. which seeks to change, stipulates that a member of the HJPC who has applied for a judicial office, or whose relative has applied for a position in the judiciary, is obliged to resign at the time of application. According to media reports, it was the son of the proposer of these changes who applied for a position in the judiciary, and in that case Mr. Čizmović was obliged to resign even then. Instead, he uses his position to simply repeal these rules and remain in office, while at the same time being able to influence the decision-making process on appointing his son to one of the positions in the judiciary.

TI BiH calls on the members of the HJPC to reject this proposal and show the elementary level of integrity of the institution itself, and on the other hand, if it turns out that Cizmovic is in conflict of interest, act according to the provisions of the Rulebook, which require his resignation.

A meeting was held on the occasion of the creation of the Open Government Partnership Action Plan

Press releases ● 18 November 2014

In September 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina became 65. member of the global initiative Partnership for Open Government, which undertook to accept and promote the core values of the Partnership, and cooperation with civil society in planning and defining the national action plan, as well as implementing the activities it provides. Given that the adoption and presentation of the action plan is one of the activities that BiH as a new member of the Partnership must carry out by July 2015, a meeting of representatives of institutions organized so far companies that have been most active in advocacy activities for accession, with the aim of specifying the next steps when it comes to the action planning process. The meeting was also attended by Irena Bojadžievska, State OGP Coordinator for Macedonia and representative of the Ministry of Information Society and Administration of Macedonia, and Saša Šegrt, GONG Project Development Manager from Croatia, who reviewed the action planning procedures in Macedonia and Croatia from the government’s point of view. and civil society. Representatives of the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the BiH Ministry of Justice and the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office gave brief reviews of the current situation and perspectives of BiH, and challenges for the further process of adopting the action plan. Despite the current limiting circumstances due to the process of forming a new government at all levels, the representatives of the institutions expressed their readiness to take concrete steps soon when it comes to starting the action planning process and close cooperation with civil society. The adoption of the future action plan will cover a wider range of institutions and civil society organizations, and the process itself will be published in a timely manner so that the general public can be involved in identifying major challenges and proposing measures to be included in the action plan. Press rls – 18 11 2014 doc

Ten parties spent 4.5m KM during the campaign on TV and print ads alone

Press releases ● 15 October 2014

Banja Luka, 15. October 2014 — Transparency International of Bosnia and Herzegovina monitored and analyzed the election campaign for the selected 10 political parties, taking into account advertising in electronic and print media. The monitoring results showed that ten political parties spent 3,600,000 KM during the campaign, only on the lease of space in electronic and print media (10 TV stations and 9 print publications). When the amounts set aside for the preparation of advertisements are added to this, the total costs of advertising in these media amount to around 4.5 million KM.

This amount does not include leased terms in the media, such as broadcasts or broadcasts of pre-election rallies, of which there were many, but media houses did not mark these leased terms, which is why the line between advertising and regular TV programs is lost.

When comparing individual parties, the amounts indicate that the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) spent the most on this type of advertising, around 860,700, SNSD, which, when the advertisements of this party and the SNSD-DNS coalition add up, spent almost 870,000, and the Alliance for changes with a cost of about 775,000 KM. There are also the Alliance for a Better Future (SBB) with an estimated cost of advertising in electronic and print media of about 493,000, the Social Democratic Party of BiH (SDP) with about 406,500 KM, DNS with about 350,500, and the Democratic Front with about 220,000 KM. It is interesting that the People’s Party, for the sake of improvement, which was included in the monitoring, did not have advertisements on covered media houses, and that HDZ BiH had only two advertisements.

TI BiH also made a rough estimate of the cost of advertising on billboards, based on the price list of agencies, and reached a rough amount of at least 3,000,000 KM in total for political parties, so the total amount of covered advertising is 7.5 million KM.

It is necessary to mention that not all media houses are included here, as well as all types of advertising. If the costs of election rallies, posters, leaflets, internet advertising, buses, etc. were added up, the estimated costs would be many times higher.

TI BiH also monitored the pre-election rallies of political parties, and the data on advertising and rallies will be compared with the financial reports of political parties, after they are submitted to the Central Election Commission.

Also, TI BiH forwarded to the CEC BiH information on potential violations of the Law on Financing of Political Parties, which includes the use of public resources to promote political parties, and hopes that this information will be taken into account when auditing financial statements of parties.

Press rls – 15 October 2014 doc

Continuation of the collapse of BiH

Press releases ● 10 October 2014

Banja Luka, 10. October 2014 – On the occasion of the publication of the European Union Progress Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2014. Transparency International BiH expects that the Report will serve as a basis for stronger engagement and support of the EU BiH, in order to prevent further collapse of the institutional framework and basic functions of the state. The unequivocal role of the country’s top political leadership in organized criminal activities, absolute party control over all public resources and the complete paralysis of law enforcement institutions seriously threaten to completely destabilize the country and provoke conflicts and riots. Expressions of civil discontent were already seen in February this . Since then, the dissatisfaction of the citizens has further increased due to the complete absence of organized prevention and remediation of the consequences of the floods, which, in addition to material damage, has resulted in the loss of human lives.

Earlier this year, as part of the Structural Dialogue on Judicial Reform, TI BiH launched an initiative to identify key cases of corruption by the EU, which law enforcement agencies must address as a matter of priority, and involving the country’s top officials. Also, in the process of resolving cases, it is necessary to provide additional technical assistance to prosecutors’ offices and law enforcement institutions.

The report published by the European Commission actually confirms that in BiH not only there is no progress in the implementation of reforms, but that in key areas, such as the fight against corruption and public administration, BiH is moving in a completely opposite direction.

The Progress Report reiterates the problem of pressures and political control over the work of the judiciary, as well as inefficiencies in prosecuting major corruption cases and a lack of judicial capacity to prosecute economic, financial and public procurement crimes. Progress in implementing public administration reform and improving its capacity to meet EU requirements was also assessed as very limited, and concerns were expressed about the inefficiency and non-functioning of public administration at all levels of government.

Unfortunately, EU warnings and increasingly negative progress reports have not only not influenced BiH leaders to take responsibility and take more decisive action in bringing BiH closer to the European Union, but leaders have shown a lack of interest in implementing reforms, especially in the fight against corruption and corruption. rule of law. All this leads to the conclusion that EU policies and messages towards BiH must be far clearer and more concrete, in order to change the negative political dynamics in the country.

Press rls – 10/10/2014

TI BiH informed the German investigative bodies regarding the procurement of IDDEEA

Press releases ● 07 October 2014

Banja Luka, 7. October 2014 — Transparency International of Bosnia and Herzegovina sent information to the German investigative bodies regarding the procurement of electronic ID cards and driver’s licenses, the system for creating and personalizing electronic ID cards and contracts concluded in connection with this work by the Agency for Identification Documents, Records and Data Exchange of BiH (IDDEEA). TI BiH forwarded the information to the German investigative bodies, bearing in mind that according to the information from the media reports, as well as the audit report, German capital and legal entities from Germany were included in the whole case.

Based on media articles and the audit report for 2013, it can be concluded that there are grounds for suspicion that these are serious crimes with elements of criminal association, which include the highest authorities and their relatives.

In this case, the Agency in 2012. conducted a procurement procedure related to the delivery and establishment of a system for partial personalization of cards, delivery and upgrade of existing equipment for personalization of cards, as well as delivery of cards and a complete system for personalization of electronic ID cards and system maintenance. The procurement in the total value of about 104,000,000 KM was carried out through a negotiated procedure without publication of a notice. The audit report pointed out a number of irregularities in this procedure, including the selection of a negotiated procedure without additional procurement information, which is prescribed by the BiH Law on Public Procurement. The audit report also determined that the contract for the purchase of forms of ID cards and driver’s licenses agreed on provisions that could have detrimental consequences for the budget of BiH institutions, and that primarily refers to withdrawal of agreed annual quantities, total quantities and advance payment.

Given the possible involvement of high-ranking political officials and the fact that the BiH judiciary is completely inactive and under direct political control, at this time it is unrealistic to expect that this case will be before the BiH investigative bodies. As a signatory to the OECD Convention on the Punishment of Bribery Abroad, Germany has an obligation to investigate such cases, given that in the whole case there is a segment of foreign countries, ie the involvement of German capital and legal entities.

Press rls – 7 10 2014 doc

TI BiH is Organizing a Press Conference on Financing of the Election Campaign

Announcements ● 06 October 2014

Banja Luka, 6^th October 2014 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) is organizing a press conference at which the preliminary finding of the monitoring of the election campaign will be presented.

Over the past period, TI BiH has monitored advertising in print and electronic media, election rallies, and conducted the research on budget allocations for political parties.

Also, TI BiH has conducted the research on the use of premises of the public institutions by the political parties, as well as the use of the institutional resources for the purpose of the election campaign.

TI BiH will present all preliminary findings to the media at Wednesday, 8^th October 2014, at the Hotel Europe in Sarajevo, with the beginning at noon.

TI BiH is Organizing a Press Conference on Financing of the Election Campaign

SDP Uses the Company ‘Autoceste Federacije BiH’ (FBiH Motorways) for Founding and Conducting of Election Campaign

Press releases ● 06 October 2014

Banja Luka, 6^th October 2014 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) strongly condemns the repeated practice of political parties to finance the election campaign through public enterprises and institutions.

The latest example of such practice is the campaign of ‘Autoceste Federacije BiH‘ (FBiH Motorways) on construction of motorway on corridor Vc, which flooded the media and billboards and was artfully timed to be conducted during the election campaign in order to be used for political purposes of the Social-democratic Party, which based almost entire election campaign on the work of that enterprise by privatizing and usurping the motorway project.

TI BiH reminds that public enterprises, such as ‘Autoceste Federacije BiH‘ (FBiH Motorways), are neither the property of political parties nor the Social-democratic Party, despite the fact that the management of this public enterprise is selected on the basis of kinship ties with their representatives, and such examples represent abuse of the institutions and public enterprises for election campaigning.

Ti BiH has issued a request to the ‘Autoceste Federacije BiH‘ (FBiH Motorways) to submit information on total cost of this campaign, and hereby urges the competent authorities to act according to the law and sanction this frequent practice of the parties in power to use the institutions and public enterprises to finance their election campaign.

SDP Uses the Company ‘Autoceste Federacije BiH’ (FBiH Motorways) for Founding and Conducting of Election Campaign

The Institutions Have Not Met the Needs of Citizens after the Floods

Press releases ● 01 October 2014

Banja Luka, 1^st September 2014 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) has presented the Report on citizen’s complaints related to the abuse in the aid allocation for flood-hit areas, as well as the field research on actions taken by the institutions in the flood-hit areas.

Complaints of citizens and the field research have showed that the institutions at all levels of the government demonstrated incapability to meet the needs of citizens. It has been pointed to the lack of coordination between the institutions, which have accused each other of political obstruction, as well as politization of entire process of allocation of aid and funds for flood-hit areas, which has been manifested through inter-party conflicts and use of aid for election promotion.  The field research has indicated the unequal access to registration which would allow allocation of aid and help to citizens affected by floods. That is the reason why citizen’s doubt regarding fairness and objectivity in aid allocation was raised.

Because of this, TI BiH has received more than 500 calls of citizens who complained on: the sale and theft of humanitarian aid, the bias in aid allocation, irregularities in the damage assessment process and the allocation of credit cards and vouchers. What concerns the most is the fact that the relevant institutions have not informed citizens about the criteria for aid allocation and how they can receive and use the aid. This was expected, because the adoption of the Law on the Solidarity Fund of the Republic of Srpska, and the relevant laws in Federation BiH were highly non-transparent and from the start the criteria for aid allocation has not been provided. On the basis of the complaints, TI BiH forwarded 23 citizens’ complaints to the relevant institutions -the Police and the Republic Commission for Damage Assessment – the institutions forwarded some of the complaints to the prosecutor’s offices.

What is worrying is the total absence of the strategic approach of the authorities of BiH for the following period, which is reflected in the absence of transparency of the criteria for allocation of aid and funds raised through the Donor Conference and the lack of the restoration plans, not only for infrastructure and housing, but also for already frail economy to which floods inflicted grievous blow.

The Institutions Have Not Met the Needs of Citizens after the Floods

In Two Weeks Time Ten Political Parties Spent 780.000 only on Advertising

Press releases ● 30 September 2014

Banja Luka, 30^th September 2014 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) has conducted monitoring and analysis of the second week of the election campaign of 10 selected political parties, taking into consideration advertising in electronic and print media. In the first two weeks of the campaign, the monitoring results have shown that ten political parties have spent more than 780.000 KM only for the advertising space in electronic and print media (10 TV stations and 9 printed publications).

The Party of Democratic Action and the Alliance for Change are on the leading positions when it comes to advertising expenses. In the first two weeks of the campaign, the Party of Democratic Action spent on advertising 285.000 KM, along with preparation of ads which had cost 90.000 KM the total cost of advertising amounted to 375.000 KM in. On the other side, the Alliance for Change spent on advertising around 160.000 KM, which along with the ads preparation that had cost 135.000 amounted to 295.000KM. It is interesting that in the first week of the campaign, the Party of Democratic Action had more than 50% of published ads than all parties together, while in the second week of the campaign that party published 44% of total number of ads.

The cost of advertising of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats and their coalition partners the Democratic People’s Alliance was 150.000 KM, along with add preparation the total amount of money spent for these purposes was about 257.000 KM. Candidates who advertise the most are Mr. Bakir Izetbegović and Mr. Ognjen Tadić.

The interesting fact is that some of the political parties like the Democratic Front and People’s Party for Work and Progress have not advertised on the media included in the monitoring, and the political party Union for Better Future has published a very small number of ads. This can be partly explained by recent arrest of some officials of the People’s Party for Work and Progress, and the fact that the leader of the Union for Better Future has its own media company which he uses for his promotion, so additional advertising is not necessary.

It is still the practice in the Republic of Srpska that only the ruling coalition advertises on the Public Broadcasting Service RTRS, and that BN TV advertises only the opposition parties.

Bearing in mind the fact that political parties advertise the most in the last two weeks of the campaign, it is expected that by the end of the campaign amounts of money spent on advertising are to increase significantly. On the other side, TI BiH reiterates that all mentioned amounts do not include the cost of outdoor advertising (billboards, posters, etc.) or rallies.

TI BiH uses this opportunity to once more warn political parties to lead more transparent election campaign, especially public officials who are candidates in the upcoming elections, to restrain themselves from using functions performed in the institutions in order to promote political parties to which they belong.

In Two Weeks Time Ten Political Parties Spent 780.000 only on Advertising

Konferencija povodom Međunarodnog dana slobode pristupa informacijama

Announcements ● 28 September 2014

BiH Joined the OGP Initiative

Announcements ● 26 September 2014

Sarajevo, 26^th September 2014 – In the past two years, Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina along with the Foundation CPI (Centre for Public Interest Advocacy), the Center for Social Research Analitika, the Centre for Investigative Journalism and the Open Society Fund of BiH have organized numerous activities and initiated advocacy in order to ensure BiH  enters the Open Government Partnership Initiative, and at the meeting in UN Headquarters, held on 24^th September 2014,  BiH was formally introduced as a new member of the Open Government Partnership. This also represents an official confirmation of BiH intentions to make additional efforts in terms of transparency and openness of government, as well as cooperation with citizens and civil society in accordance with the objectives of economic and social development of the country on the path towards European integration.

BiH accession to the Open Government Initiative represents a confirmation of the outstanding advocacy efforts of the TI BiH and partnership organization made during the accession process. In the past two years, TI BiH has actively been engaged in advocacy and education of the government and civil society regarding the OGP Initiative, and also gave its contribution to BiH accession to the Initiative. In cooperation with mentioned organizations, TI BiH has organized regional workshops in order to present specifics of the Initiative to the public and government representatives, as well as the experiences of the countries in the region. Successful connection with the institutions and organizations was also achieved as well as the participation in global and regional OGP summits, the education was provided along with many other activities.

The next step of BiH, in which TI BiH will actively participate, is to make the Action Plan, which will precisely define issues that have to be worked on in order to achieve the set of principles and improvement in the areas defined as problematic. The issues will be defined by the representatives of the government and civil society – the focus of whole idea of the OGP Initiative is the cooperation and co decision.

The action planning and all forthcoming steps that BiH must take will be presented on the next conference that will be organized by TI BiH on the occasion of the International Right to Know Day, which will be held in Sarajevo on 29^th September 2014. The representatives of the government and civil society will be informed of the procedures of adoption of the action plan and outline of future plans and activities.

Formal accession of BiH to the Open Government Partnership initiative represents the test for the government institutions and their commitment to transparency, considering that the phases of planning and implementation of the concrete measures are to occur in the future. TI BiH will continue with the active engagement in this area and expresses the hope that BiH’s Action Plan for the OGP Initiative will not be one in the series of documents which were adopted but not applied.

BiH Joined the OGP Initiative

SDA do sada najviše utrošila na kampanju

Press releases ● 24 September 2014

Građani potpuno nezadovoljni javnom upravom

Press releases ● 22 September 2014

Prezentacija istraživanja o javnoj upravi

Announcements ● 19 September 2014

Kandidati koji su na rukovodećim pozicijama u državnoj službi dužni su podnijeti ostavku

Press releases ● 16 September 2014

TI BiH počeo sa monitoringom izborne kampanje

Press releases ● 12 September 2014