TI BiH warns: The proposal of the Law on Conflict of Interest is meaningless with amendments

If the amendments to the proposal on the Law on Conflict of Interest are adopted, Bosnia and Herzegovina will get a worse law than the existing one, although its improvement is one of the main priorities on the European path.

Sarajevo, 14 October 2020 – Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) warns the BiH Parliamentary Assembly that the Draft Law on Prevention of Conflicts of Interest in BiH Institutions, which is on the agenda of the House of Representatives today, is not in line with international standards and GRECO recommendations. proposal adopted in the first reading made meaningless by the adoption of amendments that practically legalize the conflict of interest.

Amendments adopted by the Constitutional Law Commission at the suggestion of the SNSD, which allow public officials to perform other incompatible functions at other levels of government and be members of management and supervisory boards, completely derogate from the text of the law and establish lower standards than even the law. is now in force.

The original draft adopted in the first reading met all international standards and adequately prescribed incompatibilities of public functions, but through the adoption of the amendments, control mechanisms were completely relaxed and less restrictions were introduced than the current law offers.

The adoption of the HDZ amendment allows office holders to head foundations and associations that receive money from entity and cantonal budgets, which also introduces lower standards than the existing law. Due to this conflict of interest situation, the case of Dragan Čović has been before the Commission for Deciding on Conflict of Interest since 2017. year, and the work of this Commission was blocked due to this case.

In addition, the adopted amendments do not ensure the required level of independence of the bodies that should implement the Law, which is one of the basic preconditions stated in international standards.

We note that the improvement of the Law on Conflict of Interest is one of the 14 priorities highlighted by the European Union on BiH’s path to EU membership, and the solutions that were subsequently included in the Bill do not provide the necessary improvements.

TI BiH therefore appeals to the House of Representatives to adopt the law in its original form, because if it is adopted in a form containing controversial amendments, a clear message will be sent that there is no will to meet any improvements listed in EU priorities, and conflicts of interest will be legalized.

Press rls – 14.10.2020