The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH continues to limit the monitoring over the way in which judges and prosecutors acquire their assets

Although a new form for submitting the financial statements of the holders of judicial positions has been adopted, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council requested that the key elements for verification of the way in which assets have been acquired are removed from the form, but also to narrow the scope of people covered by the report

Banjaluka, 11th October 2017 – At the session held on 4th October 2017, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) adopted the conclusion to adopt the draft form for submitting the financial statements of the holders of judicial functions in BiH, but it also requested that the key elements for verification of the way in which the assets have been acquired are removed from the form, and that the scope of people encompassed by the report is narrowed.
Namely, the draft form composed by the Working Group for the improvement of integrity and responsibility of the holders of judicial functions, prescribed that the life partners of the holders of judicial functions, regardless of the fact if they are married to them or not, their children (who live in the same household or somewhere else, including the adopted children and stepchildren), parents/adoptive parents and other members of the joint household of the bearer of the judicial function must also submit the information on their income and activities, realized in BiH and abroad. However, members of HJPC did not agree with this proposal and adopted a conclusion that the submission of data should be limited only to the holders of the judicial functions, spouses and children living with them in the same household.
In the same way, the Council ordered that the sections related to time, date and way of acquiring the assets should be erased from the part of the draft form referring to the data on the assets of the holders of the functions and members of their family.
Transparency International in BiH warns that such decision of the HJPC is contrary to the recommendations of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), that should serve as a motive to improve the form, and which primarily require the development of a system efficient for the control of annual financial statements and insurance of their publicity and easy access to financial information. It is still vague what the efficient control will be based on if it is not developed on the basis of complete and exact data, i.e. data which do not contain all related persons, nor the way or time of acquiring the assets, and in addition, leave the space to hide the actual ownership of property and its origin.
TI BiH welcomes the efforts put to improve the system of reporting referring to the financial and property status of the holders of judicial positions, since the current one does not provide the appropriate control or transparency, but it also notes that no improvements will be made by removing the key information from the report. Instead, such decisions additionally increase the perception of the public that the representatives of the judicial community resist the establishment of accountability and do not want to provide all information related to their assets. Therefore, TI BiH invites the members of the HJPC to show real willingness to improve the integrity of the holders of judicial functions and adopt forms and corresponding rules that will provide full insight and control of the accuracy of the data from the report, and the way in which the assets have been acquired, since this is a basic precondition to detect and prevent the illegal enrichment.