In BiH, over 150 officials hold dual functions or are in some form of potential conflict of interest, as the law is not enforced or there is no body competent to enforce it.
For example, councilor in the Municipal Assembly of Prnjavor Bogoljub Saničanin voted for the Veterans’ Organization Prnjavor, of which he is president, to be paid over 100,000 KM in 2019 and 2020 from funds intended for financing non-governmental organizations from the municipal budget. The Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Republika Srpska does not allow this, but despite this, a review of grants received by this association clearly shows that Saničanin, as a councilor, enabled the organization he presides over to receive payments exceeding the amount permitted by law.
Željko Vučurević, through his private company, received contracts worth over 79,000 KM from the City of Trebinje and “H.E. na Trebišnjici” in the period between 2016 and 2020 when he was a councilor in the Assembly of the City of Trebinje, which is contrary to law and is also prohibited by the Law.
Drago Gužvić, councilor in the Municipality of Šekovići, simultaneously holds the position of acting director of PE “Komunalac” Šekovići. Although the law does not allow sitting on the boards of public enterprises, in RS this is circumvented by appointing elected officials as “acting officials,” which the Commission for Determining Conflict of Interest in Government Bodies of Republika Srpska interprets as a “function of limited capacity” and claims that officials appointed in this manner are not in conflict of interest despite performing additional functions.
On the other hand, in the Federation of BiH, since 2013 there has been no body that can determine conflict of interest, so this phenomenon goes without sanctions.
Thus Aladin Ćerimović, councilor from Velika Kladuša, is simultaneously advisor to the Prime Minister of USK, which are, according to the applicable Law, incompatible functions. He is also a member of the supervisory board of PE “Komunalije” d.o.o. Velika Kladuša, which is another basis on which this official is in conflict of interest, which cannot be prevented due to the absence of a competent body.
Following a complaint by Transparency International in BiH, the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina initiated proceedings to revoke the mandate of councilor in the municipal council of Velika Kladuša Aladin Ćerimović.
All the mentioned situations show that laws for preventing conflict of interest are rendered meaningless in practice or their enforcement is essentially prevented since it is not in the interest of political actors. Therefore, urgent amendment of laws dealing with this area at all levels in BiH is necessary, which TI BiH has been warning about for years, especially since this is one of the 14 priorities for BiH to obtain candidate status for membership in the European Union.
All data on multiple mandates, awarded grants to associations, members of public enterprise boards were obtained using publicly available databases maintained by TI BiH:
Database of public institutions in BiH – information on public institutions with data on the number of employees, budgets and amounts of compensation for members of management structures at all levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Register of public office holders – information on mandates of elected and appointed officials at all levels of government in BiH.
Monitoring the distribution of public funds to associations and foundations – information on amounts, criteria and final beneficiaries of public funds for financing the work of civil associations and foundations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Public enterprises database – database with basic data on operations, financial indicators, salary expenditures, managers and board members of public enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
