TI BiH filed a complaint with the CEC against 14 political parties for illegal donations

Transparency International in BiH filed a complaint with the Central Election Commission against 14 political parties, because they received donations from legal entities that had concluded contracts with executive bodies and thus violated the Law on Financing of Political Parties in BiH.

Banja Luka, 5. June 2019 – Tansparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) has filed a complaint with the Central Election Commission (CEC BiH) against 14 political parties for receiving banned items. The application includes SBB, SDS, SDP, SDA, A-SDA, Party for BiH, DNS, DF, Nezavisni Blok, PDA, Socialist Party, Independent List of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alliance for New Politics and SRS Dr. Vojislav Seselj. The mentioned political parties received donations from legal entities that had concluded agreements with the executive authorities and thus violated the Law on Financing of Political Parties in BiH.

Along with the application, TI BiH submitted a list of agreements concluded by donors of these parties with the executive authorities during 2018. . These data show that party donors have won numerous tenders in local communities where those parties exercise power , which raises additional suspicion that taxpayers’ money has been used to finance the election campaign in this way.

Thus, SBB received donations from a company that received lucrative jobs in numerous local communities, including a million-dollar business in the Municipality of Ilidža, where the party participates in government, while SDA financiers won tenders in the municipalities of Živinice and Bosanski Petrovac. The municipal board of the SDS in Teslić received donations from the company that received tenders from the municipal administration led by that party, as well as from public institutions managed by the municipality. The Socialist Party’s financial obligation was revoked by a company that received jobs from the RS government in which the party participates, while the list of PDA financiers includes a private company that received tenders from the Tuzla Canton government and the municipalities of Banovici, Zivinice, Gradacac and Breza. The Party for BiH also noticed several donations from anonymous sources, which by law had to be paid into the BiH budget. Due to all the above, TI BiH appealed to the CEC of BiH to adequately sanction the mentioned political parties.

Most parties reported small amounts of donations from private companies up to 5,000 KM, but the accuracy of these data is not guaranteed, because the Law on Financing of Political Parties leaves great opportunities for political entities to conceal the real sources and amounts of donations.

Monitoring of the financing of TI BiH political parties has shown that from year to year, political entities report fewer and fewer donations, although the overall budgets of the parties do not change significantly, while the costs of election campaigns increase . Numerous ruling political parties, such as the SNSD and the United Srpska, have not reported a single stamp of donations from legal entities. On the other hand, SNSD reported more than half a million KM in membership fees for 2018. year, without even stating the number of members.

Due to the illegal financing of the parties, TI BiH has previously submitted reports to the CEC, and the CEC Audit Service found that the registered parties received prohibited contributions, after which some of them returned illicit donations.

Press rls 6/5/2019