TI BiH reported the new director of RS Railways, Slavko Gligorić, due to a conflict of interest

Banja Luka, 11. October 2019 – Due to the incompatibility of the functions of MP and director of a public company, Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) filed a complaint with the Commission for Determining Conflicts of Interest against Slavko Gligorić, the newly appointed acting director of Republika Srpska Railways. The law clearly states that elected officials cannot be members of supervisory boards and managements of public companies during their term and three months after their expiration, but Gligoric is also the director and member of the RS National Assembly.

TI BiH also informed the Railway Supervisory Board about that, because the appointment of Gligorić is disputable due to the Law on Public Enterprises of RS, which prescribes that someone who performs an executive function in a political party cannot be appointed a member of the management. Slavko Gligorić is currently the president of the regional board of the DNS, which according to the statute of this party certainly represents an executive function. To add to the absurdity, he is at the head of a company whose audit reports are adopted by members of the RS National Assembly, of which he is a member of parliament and in the coming period may find himself deciding on the results of his own work.

For the same reason, TI BiH reported the newly appointed director of Elektrokrajina Dragan Cavic in March this year, also due to suspicion that he is in a conflict of interest on two grounds because he is also the acting director, MP and president of a political party. However, the Commission for Determining Conflicts of Interest suspended the procedure, explaining that Cavic as the acting director “is not a director in full capacity”, nor is Elektrokrajina a “public company in full capacity” because it operates as a subsidiary within the Mixed Holding Elektroprivreda RS.

Furthermore, the director of Elektroprivreda RS, Luka Petrović, is currently performing the function of the general secretary of SNSD and is in a conflict of interest based on the Law on Public Enterprises. Therefore, TI BiH requested an explanation from the Supervisory Board of Elektroprivreda RS, which, in response without any argument, briefly states: “all appointments are made in accordance with positive legal regulations”, and the answer is signed by the President of the Supervisory Board Slavica Injac.

Despite the interpretations of the commission, the position of TI BiH is that the acting directors have exactly the same powers as the directors from the point of view of the law, which should prevent the possibility of harming the public interest. For years, TI BiH has been warning about the vagueness of the law on conflict of interest, which results in arbitrary interpretations and different decisions of the competent authorities in the same cases. Thus, the Commission did not determine the conflict of interest in the case of SDS MP Milenko Vićanović, who also performs the function of director of JP Komunalac Bijeljina, with the explanation that it is a company from the local government level, although in this case the law clearly prescribes incompatibilities. In almost the same case, former MP Nedeljko Milaković was dismissed from the position of director of a local company in Banja Luka due to incompatibility, as well as the position of MP.

Authorities have still not resolved TI BiH’s charges against the former Deputy Director of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption of BiH, Dragan Andjelic, who was appointed RITE Gacko Executive Director immediately after his resignation, in violation of the Law on Conflict of Interest in Government Institutions BIH. As members of the Commission for Deciding on Conflict of Interest have not yet been appointed in front of both houses of the BiH Parliament, there is no answer to the report against the current director of RS Roads, Nenad Nesic, who is also a member of the PSBiH House of Representatives.

TIBiH reported the new director of RS Railways, Slavko Gligorić, due to a conflict of interest