TI BiH: Appointment of Nikola Špirić to the Commission for Selection and Monitoring of APIK is a slap in the face to the fight against corruption

By appointing Spiric, the legislature gives the politician, who is facing the most serious accusations of corruption, the opportunity to monitor, supervise and influence the work of the anti-corruption agency.

Banja Luka, 24. September 2020 – Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) warns that the appointment of Nikola Špirić to the Commission for Selection and Monitoring of the Agency for Prevention and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption (APIK) makes all efforts in the fight against corruption meaningless. The Parliamentary Assembly has elected a politician to the parliamentary body who, according to the official information of the American government, is involved in high corruption and accepting bribes in connection with the public functions he performed. Spiric and his family were banned from entering the United States due to their involvement in corruption.

The Commission, as an independent body of the Parliamentary Assembly, oversees the work of APIK, and has a key role in the process of appointing and dismissing the only institution whose mandate is dedicated exclusively to the fight against corruption. By appointing Spiric, the legislature gives the politician, who is facing the most serious accusations of corruption, the opportunity to monitor, supervise and influence the work of the anti-corruption agency. TI BiH reminds that the role of the Commission has been controversial so far, so the last published report on the work of the Commission is the one for 2017. year, while the last session was held more than two . The inefficiency of the parliamentary oversight is also shown by the fact that the Deputy Director of APIK was not elected.

TI BiH also reminds of the warning of federal auditors that from 2015. conditions were not created for the application of the Law on Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime in FBiH because accommodation facilities for special departments for suppression of corruption, organized and inter-cantonal crime at the Prosecutor’s Office and the Supreme Court of FBiH were not provided. At the same time, the First Deputy Prosecutor General is acting as the Chief Federal Prosecutor, although the term for which he was appointed has expired, and the number of unresolved cases in the Federal Prosecutor’s Office is increasing.

Ineffective parliamentary oversight of an independent anti-corruption institution and the appointment of a politician accused of high corruption to the parliamentary body that oversees the institution’s work, but also the government’s resistance to providing funding for special prosecutors’ offices for organized crime and corruption. There is no minimum political will in Herzegovina to fight corruption. Instead of creating conditions for the fight against corruption, legal, institutional and financial preconditions are being created to thwart any attempt to fight corruption.

Press rls 9/24/2020