The Council of Ministers continues with the controversial practice of appointing the acting directors

The controversial practice of temporary appointments has been repeated for several times and referred to a disproportionately long period of time, without having clearly prescribed procedures, rules and criteria, thus creating space for political appointments

Banja Luka, 15th August 2017 – The Council of Ministers have continued with the practice of appointing the acting directors of institutions although the regulations do not provide clear rules for this kind of appointments. There were two appointments to the position of the acting director at the session held on 6th July 2017 – the appointment of the Acting Director of the Agency for Forensic Examinations and Expertise and Acting Deputy Director of the Agency for Education and Professional Training. The temporary appointments are on 60 days in both cases.

Previously, the Council of Ministers had made two appointments twice on 60 days, of the Acting Assistant Director for the Internal Control at the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs, and the current Director of the Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange (IDDEEA) has been first appointed to the position of the Acting Director. Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) was then replied by the Ministry of Civil Affairs that the conditions prescribed by the Law on Civil Service in BiH institutions or other special regulations had not been checked prior to the appointments, and that in case of appointments to the acting director position a candidate did not need to meet all the conditions required for a particular position.

The controversial practice of temporary appointments has been repeated for several times and referred to a disproportionately long period of time, without having clearly prescribed procedures, rules and criteria, thus creating space for political appointments TI BiH appeals to the Council of Ministers to refrain from the appointments of the acting directors of institutions until this issue is properly regulated so that such appointments can be made only in a transparent procedure, under previously defined conditions and for a specific period of time. In order to solve this situation, it is necessary to initiate the amendments to the Law on Amendments to the Law on Ministerial, Council of Ministers and Other Appointments of Bosnia and Herzegovina.