TI BiH appeals to the Parliament not to miss an opportunity to improve the law

Banja Luka, September 1, 2011. – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) supports the initiative of the Parliamentary Assembly for the amendments to the Election Law, the Law on Financing Political Parties of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Law on conflict of interest of BiH. At the same time, TI BiH insists on a transparent and participatory procedure of changes to these essential legislations to strengthen accountability and further democratization of society, which means ensuring the participation of civil society and academia with the organization of public debates.

Researches and analyses of TI BiH, as well as the relevant international institutions, have pointed at the fact that there is a considerable scope for improving the legal framework and its harmonization with international standards and good practices, with a view to more consistent implementation of legal solutions.

When it comes to the Law on Financing Political Parties, strengthening transparency, tightening sanctions and precise definition of ways of preparing the financial reports are the most important directions in which changes should be directed. Regarding this and the part of the Election Law relating to the financing of election campaigns, it is necessary to define the reporting and auditing more precisely. By the Law on prevention of conflict of interest, it is necessary to clearly define situations that present a conflict of interest in order to reduce the scope for political influence on the institutions to implement law, as well as to enable citizens and non-governmental organizations to run applications and be a party to the proceedings.

TI BiH will in turn provide a contribution to the process of changing the aforementioned laws, in a way that appropriate researches and analyses as well as personal suggestions founded on international standards and best practices will be put on disposal to the Inter-group, and it will also coordinate the participation and monitoring of the whole process by the civil society, as it was a practice in the past.   .

TI BiH anticipates that this initiative will be only the first step towards further necessary reforms of anti-corruption legislation and also suggests that there should be formed a permanent Inter-group within the Parliamentary Assembly whose exclusive task would be improving the anti-corruption laws.