TI BiH pointed out insufficient efforts of government in fighting corruption to European Commission

TI BiH conveyed concerns about dramatic state of corruption in BiH to representatives of European Commission. Corruption hampers progress in reforms implementation and there is also a problem of insufficient enforcement of laws aiming to fight corruption

May 12, 2011 – representatives of  Transparency International-a (TI) branches from Western Balkans and European Commission met yesterday in Brussels at annual consultations, in order to prepare the report on progress of countries in European integration process that European Commission presents annually.

Findings of  Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) that were presented to representatives of European Commission indicate that BiH progress in improvement of the legal framework, especially in anti-corruption laws enforcement, is almost invisible, considering the fact that almost a year after adoption of the Law on Anti-corruption Agency this body has still not been established and Anti-corruption Strategy has almost not been enforced at all.

Constant problem when it comes to fighting corruption is an obvious lack of political will to confront corruption in BiH. Also, general elections in 2010 and the fact that government on the state level hasstill not been constituted after over 7 months, led to complete stagnation in anticorruption reforms enforcement and legal framework improvement. TI BiH also pointed at numerous irregularities that occurred during the pre-electoral campaign in the process of financing of political parties and their expenditures for the campaign, which largely influenced regularity of the elections.

At the consultations with European Commission representatives, it was also pointed at inefficiency of judiciary in processing the cases of corruption, which was demonstrated through insignificant number of corruption cases that were prosecuted and cases of asset recovery, along with constant political pressures on the work of judiciary and devaluation of its role. All mentioned obstacles do not contribute to building public confidence in the institutions.

Representatives of European Commission were also introduced to numerous violations of basic human rights and freedoms, especially in the field of access to information and freedom of media, with accent on threats and pressures continuously put on media, civil society organizations and other individuals and organizations that speak about corruption. TI BiH will continue with monitoring of anticorruption laws enforcement, and continue to inform European Commission on progress in enforcement of those reforms in BiH.[:]