The Interdepartmental Working Group Virtually Abolished the Law on Conflict of Interest

Banja Luka, 4th April 2012. – The Proposal to the framework of the Law on Conflict of Interest in Governmental Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina to exempt advisers and to narrow the circle of close relatives of elected officials, to whom its provisions refer, is the crudest attempt to destroy legislation making it completely pointless.

Instead of introducing the principles of accountability to the elected officials these solutions want to ensure that in the future they would not be responsible for any violation of the Law , especially when it comes to their close relatives, even though in current practice of the Law has been determined that many officials were penalized because the officials used their close relatives for illegal self-enrichment.

At the same time, the amendment to the definition of the public companies has been proposed, considering by it only those which have more than 50% of the state capital, and the legal limit on contracts for personal services of public officials has been shifted from 5,000 to 20,000 KM per year, is an additional indication that public officials seek to expand opportunities for the acquisition of additional benefits through the abuse of public office in which they are located.

It is evident that the representatives of SNSD, HDZ and SDP BiH joined a coalition that aims at complete collapse of the conflict of interest and state institutions, putting the individual and party interests ahead of the interests of the public and the state, with the sole aim to provide an additional benefit for public officials and complete amnesty for the conflict of interest.

When we add the fact that representatives of SNSD, HDZ BiH, and SDP BiH with the support of the Chairman of  CEC BiH advocate not only the abolition of sanctions prohibiting candidacy, but also any possible idea relating to clear prescription of keeping the mandate of elected officials, and opposition to provisions that clearly define dismissal of appointed officials because of violations of the Law on Conflict in Governmental Institutions of BiH, it is clear that if this amendment is adopted the Law will lose its purpose completely, and on that grounds it could be set aside.

Due to the alarming amendments to the Law on Conflict of Interest in Government Institutions in BiH that Interdepartmental Working Group adopted by the majority of vote of the representatives of political parties and Chairman of the CEC BiH, Transparency International BiH calls public, representatives of the media and civil society, the Delegation of the European Union in Bosnia, the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Council of Europe, especially Venice Commission and the Group of States against corruption (GRECO), as well as representatives of other international organizations and embassies, to immediately respond  and prevent adoption of controversial legislation in the parliament. If the public does not rebel against such open attempts to misuse and abuse the system of state institutions and budgets, it can expect the domination and complete arbitrariness of public officials causing huge damage to the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.