TI B&H Calls on the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Ensure Full Protection of Whistleblowers

TI BiH hopes that the comments received during the public discussion will be adopted by the legislators, bearing in mind the necessity for more detailed provisions of the Act and its harmonization with the proposed draft Law on the state level.

In addition to the comments on the Draft Law on its non-compliance with the Law on the state level, which could cause problems in their application because of different definitions and objectives, TI BiH has pointed out to a number of fundamental deficiencies in the Draft that could leave space for its arbitrary interpretation and uneven application. The Law does not clearly define the authorities for protection of whistleblowers, bringing additional confusion and leading to a situation where more than one authority or none of them will be implementing the Law, leaving whistleblowers without adequate protection.

The Draft Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers of the FB&H contains provisions which could have deterrent effect on potential whistleblowers. For example, the Draft Law quotes that a whistleblower is ‘liable for disclosure of official, business and trade secrets’, which in practice may lead to a situation in which the employer could declare the incriminated activity, to which the whistleblower indicates, as an official or business secret. In that case, the whistleblower would suffer the consequences, regardless of the fact that the employer performing such activities would violate the law, what could have discouraging effect to the potential whistleblowers.  Deterrent effect can also have the provision according to which’’ the whistleblower is obliged to consider the damage that may occur from their reporting, especially if the public interest arising from the report itself exceeds the same’, and therefore it discourage the potential whistleblower at the beginning. Also, this provision does not comply with the provisions according to which the whistleblower would not suffer consequences if he reported corruption in reasonable belief.

Once again TI BiH reiterates its support to the initiative for adopting the law which would provide protection to whistleblowers, but it also warns and urges the legislators to take into consideration the comments of civil society organizations in order to overcome all deficiencies and ambiguities in the Law. If not, the Law would be difficult to apply, citizens would not be motivated to report corruption and whistleblowers would be left without any protection.