PRESS RELEASES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Stranka za BiH and SNSD spent the most on their campaigns so far

Press releases ● 14 September 2010

Banja Luka, September 14, 2010 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina has been carrying out themonitoringand analysis of the first week of election campaign for 10 selected political parties, considering their advertising in print and electronic media.

Monitoring results indicate that StrankazaBiH and Saveznezavisnihsocijaldemokrata (SNSD) captured by far the most media space during the first days of campaign, and accordingly spent most funds. Especially interesting is the fact that these two parties spent more funds in the first seven days of a campaign than all the other parties covered by the research combined.

Average cost of advertising space in print and electronic media for these parties in first days of the campaign was around 10.000 KM per day. It is important to mention that the research involved only the most prominent electronic and print media in BiH. Radio stations and outdoor advertising were not covered due to lack of resources and capacities, so these numbers represent only a small part offunds spent in total.

What is also indicative is the choice of media for parties’ advertising – not surprisingly, SNSD is advertised only on RTRS, Nezavisnenovine, GlasSrpske, Fokus and Press RS. With the exception of Press RS, SNSD is the only political party being advertised in mentioned media. As a candidate for president of RS, on behalf of SNSD, MiloradDodik is the only political candidate advertising in media for this position, while other candidates are not present at all.

When it comes to candidates for Presidency of BiH, the most money was spent on the promotion of FahrudinRadoncic, candidate of the SavezzaboljubuducnostBiH (SBB BIH).

It is obvious that there is a repetition of practice when political parties that are in power spend most funds on pre-electoral campaigns and have the most aggressive campaigns as well. Considering that these results refer to the very beginning of the campaign, it is expected that the amounts of money spent on advertising are going to be incomparably higher as the time goes by.

TI BiHis taking this opportunity to warn political parties once again to carry out their campaigns in more transparent way, and let citizens have the insight into resources spent, along with their source. TI BiH will continue informing the public about funds spent on campaigns and about the level of responsibility of political parties during the campaign.

TI BiH starts with monitoring of election campaign

Press releases ● 03 September 2010

Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH), along with the ofifcial beginning of the electoral campaign starts with its monitoring of the campaign. During the campaign period, with support of agency for monitoring and media analysis, TI BiH will monitor quantity and the type of advertisements for political parties in electronic and print media, as well as amount of funds parties spend on their campaigns.

Monitoring of election campaign will include the sample of ten political parties: Stranka demokratske akcije (SDA), Stranka za BiH, Stranka za bolju budućnost (SBB), Socijaldemokratska partija BiH (SDP), Hrvatska demokratska zajednica BiH (HDZ), Hrvatska demokratska zajednica 1990. (HDZ 1990), Savez nezavisnih socijaldemokrata (SNSD), Srpska demokratska stranka (SDP), Partija demokratskog progresa RS (PDP RS) and Demokratska partija (DP).

TI BiH will monitor and frequently inform the public about the amount of funds that were spent by these ten political parties during the election campaign, and at the very end, compare this data with official financial report that parties submit toCentral Election Commission.

During the campaign, TI BiH will also continue with its regular monitoring of all the election promotion irregularities and abuse by parties, in order to provide as many information as possible to the voters, so that they can hold parties accountable for their actions

TI BiHonce again appeals to political parties to be more accountable and transparent towards their voters and also to show willingness and competence for improvements in the area of political party financing.

Campaign financed by nobody?

Press releases ● 02 September 2010

Banja Luka, September 2, 2010— Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovine (TI BiH) calls upon the Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry of Federation of BiH, Vahid Heco, to reveal a mystery about financing ofcampaign “Nijekasnozaboljiživot” (“Not late for better life”), that was made in cooperation between ElektroprivredaBiH and ministry headed by Mr. Heco.

TI BiHhas already warned the public that this campaign was used for a promotion of political party StrankazaBiH, and that ElektroprivredaBiH claims that this company neither took part in this campaign, nor financed it. The Ministry did not even answer to inquiry of TI BiHabout who financed and carried out the campaign. At the same time, Prime Minister of Federation of BiH, Mustafa Mujezinović, claims that the Government did not approve or finance this campaign, while mr.Hećo in his reaction to TI BiHpress release expressed pride about the fact that campaign is being connected to StrankazaBiH’ successes, and on the other hand, he also claims that “not a single convertible mark was spent out of federal budget for the campaign promoting energy projects”.

Considering this contradictory statements and the fact that, again, it was not explained what was the source of financing for the campaign, TI BiH considers that Mr.Hećo owes explanation to citizens about

• who is responsible for financing the Elektroprivreda campaign,
• what was the amount of fundsspent for the campaign,
• which agency, and in which way it was chosen to create and carry out the campaign.

Also, TI BiH calls upon Mr. Hećo to give the explanation of why the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry has not answered to this organization’s inquiry in a legal timeframee and therefore broke the Law on freedom of access to information.

As previously announced, even though it was deprived of information,TI BiHwill use all the legal remedies to get insight into contract on implementation of the campaign, in the attempt to inform citizens completely about the way their money is being spent.

Gaining election points through abuse of public resources

Press releases ● 01 September 2010

Banja Luka, September 1, 2010— Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) strongly disapproves of increasing tendency of abusing public resources for the purpose of election campaign and appeals to political parties not to act irresponsible towards the funds that came from taxpayers, whose interests they should represent. Impelled by recent campaign of Elektroprivreda BiH and Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry, under the slogan „Nije kasno za bolji život“(„Not late for a better life“), which was obviously used for pre-electoral purposes, TI BiH sent to Elektroprivreda BiH request for information about public tender for conduction of the campaign, along with the criteria for the assessment, the best bidder and the price of agreed services.

Elektroprivreda replied that this company did not take part in organizing the campaign and therefore did not finance it, remarking that information can be gained from the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry. TI BiH contacted the Ministry in order to get abovementioned information, but Ministry refused to reveal any, although the legal limit for providing the information has expired.

Considering the fact that Elektroprivreda, whose name has been used in the campaign is not familiar with any details of the campaign, along with the statement of Federal Prime Minister, Mustafa Mujezinovic that the campaign was not financed from the federal budget and that the Government did not give its consent, conclusion is that in this case, public resources are being abused for the promotion of the political party, Stranka za BiH, whose member is Minister of energy, mining and industry, Vahid Heco. Although TI BiH was denied of the information, it will use all the legal remedies to get the insight into contract for campaign implementation, in order to inform the citizens completely about the way their money is being spent.

Financing pre-electoral campaigns from the state budget is not only problem in Federation of BiH– after re-broadcasting the movie “Ponosni na Srpsku” (“Proud of Srpska”) signed by Republic of Srpska Government, which promotes the achievements of political party SNSD just before the beginning of the election campaign, it became clear that the main purpose of this movie is glorification of Milorad Dodik, president of SNSD, who is a candidate for president of RS in upcoming elections. Naturally, funds for this movie, which was broadcasted in prime-time on almost all the TV-stations in RS, were provided from the RS budget, i.e. taxpayers’ money.

Irresponsibility towards the public resources has also been shown by the political party SDA, that paid auxiliary workers through the service cooperative Peskara, which is not only unregistered, but according to findings of Centar za instrazivacko novinarstvo (The Center for Investigative Reporting), several persons listed as workers never really had cooperation with SDA. Also, significant part of abovementioned resources never made its way to final users. TI BiH has already warned about the fact that nither Central Election Comission (CEC) nor other institutions have jurisdiction of control over the political parties’ expenditures, which enables parties to spend budget resources in an illegal way, just like SDA in abovementioned case.

Based on all this, TI BiH once again appeals to political parties to take responsibility towards citizens who elect them, and especially appeals on CEC, to whom TI BiH is going to direct demand to investigate two abovementioned cases, to penalize these actions adequately and to prevent further abuse of public resources by political parties and their representatives. Also, TI BiH appeals to all citizens to take mentioned cases into consideration when giving their vote on the elections and to make their decision based on the level of accountability that political parties have showed in the previous period.

Open letter to the Parliament and the Government of the Federation of BiH

Press releases ● 27 July 2010

Urgently bring order to the financing of political parties

Press releases ● 30 June 2010

TI BiH fully supports the proposal of the Chief Prosecutor of BiH

Press releases ● 29 June 2010

Conference on Financing of Political Parties in BiH

Press releases ● 28 June 2010

Consultation TI – European Commission

Press releases ● 24 June 2010

TI BiH supports the establishment of a working group to amend the Law on Conflict of Interest

Press releases ● 19 June 2010

Political parties in BiH are completely non-transparent

Press releases ● 18 June 2010

TI BiH and Open Society Fund appeal for the prevention of attempts aimed at undermining the rule of law in BiH

Press releases ● 15 June 2010

Anti-corruption organisations call for reform of Access to Information Laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro

Press releases ● 01 June 2010

Presentation of regional recommendations and findings on freedom of access to information

Press releases ● 31 May 2010

Workshop on freedom of access to information

Press releases ● 25 May 2010

N / R. To all members of the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples

Press releases ● 24 May 2010