Report on activities for the establishment of the Agency for corruption prevention and coordination of the fight against corruption

Pursuant to Article 26 of the Law, responsible institutions were obliged within 90 days to appoint the necesary staff and to set up the bodies forseen by the Law. Pursuant to Art 17 of the Law, this involves the establishment  of the Commission for the appointment and monitoring of  the work of the Agency, which is nominated by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and consists of 3 representatives from the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH , 3 members of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, two representatives from the academia and one representative from the non-governmental sector, which then is tasked to appoint the director of the Agency.

Albeit the deadline was 90 days, the appointments were not made even 6 months from passing the law. The Action plan for the implementation of the Strategy for the fight against corruption 2009-2014 envisaged that by the end of June 2010 the director, the vice and other key staff of the agency would have been appointed. Given that the deadlines set in the Law for the appointment and establishment of bodies were not met, the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH nominated the acting director of the Agency.

On 24^th June 2010 House of Peoples of BiH appointed Mijo Krešić, deputy to the Minister of Security BIH as the acting director of the Agency for the corruption prevention and the coordination of the fight against corruption.  The same decision was made by the House of Representatives of BIH at its session held on 21^st April. This appointment stands in direct contrast with the Law, given that the Law on the Agency clearly defines the procedure for the appointment of the director, which was violated by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. Furthermore, article 14 of the Law says that the director can neither belong to a political party nor work in the public administration, whereas the appointed director is the member of the presidency of the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) and deputy to the minister of security BiH.

Within the regular legal procedure the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH has up to date appointed 6 representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH in the Commission for the election and monitoring of the work of the Agency, three from each House of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and none of them belongs to the opposition parties.

Ad – hoc joint commission of both Houses of Parliamentary Assembly of BiH for the Implementation of procedure for the appointment of two representatives from academia and one representative from the non-governmental sector in the Commission for the election and monitoring of the work of the Agency has up to date appointed one representative from academia and a representative of an NGO sector. The person appointed as a NGO representative is the former military, who currently owns the private company, which actually poses the question of the potential conflict of interest, despite the fact that the open call [2] required experience in the relevant field in which the Agency operates.

For the second member of the commission, coming from academia, a new call will be announced.

[1] Law on Agency for the corruption prevention and coordination of the fight against corruption, Official Gazette  BiH 103/09

[2] OPEN CALL FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF TWO REPRESENTATIVES FROM ACADEMIA AND ONE  REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE NON-GOVERNMENTAL SECTOR IN THE COMMISSION FOR THE ELECTION AND MONITORING OF THE WORK OF THE AGENCY FOR THE CORRUPTION PREVENTION AND THE COORDINATION OF THE FIGHT AGAINSC CORRUPTION  http://www.parlament.ba/sadrzaj/1/58/19.html