The FBiH Government is obstructing the implementation of the Law on Combating Corruption and Organized Crime

The explanation according to which the Law on Combating Corruption and Organized Crime cannot be implemented since there are no specific conditions for it, only proves the fact that fight against corruption is not on the priority list of the current FBiH Government

Banja Luka, 25th February 2016 – The Members of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament adopted the amendments to the Law on Combating Corruption and Organized Crime in the FBiH, which extended the deadline for the beginning of the implementation of this Law up to 1st July 2017.
The FBiH Government justifies the postponement of the implementation of this Law by the lack of material, technical and infrastructural capacities to establish special departments within the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor’s Office. At the same time, the FBiH Government significantly increased the fees for its members and consultants two weeks ago, just at the moment of implementing the announced cuts and rationalization of the costs in the public sector. In creating the budget, the attention was paid to the increase of funds available to the officials and their consultants, but not to providing conditions necessary for the implementation of the most important law in the fight against corruption.
The explanation according to which the Law on Combating Corruption and Organized Crime cannot be implemented since there are no specific conditions for it, only proves the fact that fight against corruption is not on the priority list of the current FBiH Government. Transparency International BiH (TI BiH) emphasizes that the postponement of the deadline for the implementation of the most important anti-corruption law will not contribute in any way to the implementation of the reforms and Euro-integration processes aimed at the establishment of the rule of law. Even earlier there was a practice of establishing new institutions or adopting new regulations although there were not enough resources for their work and implementation.
The laws are not adopted to be a dead letter, and by postponing the deadline for the implementation of the Law that should establish the preconditions for a systematic fight against corruption until 2017 has only made its adoption pointless.

Press-rls-eng 25-2-2016