TI BiH Reports Federation Parliament Representative for Conflict of Interest: Durić’s Company in Business with City of Cazin

Transparency International has reported Irfan Durić, a representative in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the Ethics Commission of this body because his company received contracts worth over 60 thousand marks from the City of Cazin administration, whose mayor, his party chief Nermin Ogrešević, claims he was not aware of the potential conflict of interest.

The company “Voće Durić” from Cazin has concluded public procurement contracts with the City of Cazin administration, mainly for food products, and has thus received over 60 thousand marks from the local government unit during the period while its owner, Irfan Durić, held his mandate in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Half of this amount, 33.6 thousand marks, was received by this company in 2019, although the Law on Conflict of Interest in FBiH Government Bodies stipulates that elected officials, executive function holders and advisors, while performing their duties, cannot be members of the assembly, supervisory board, management or administration, nor act as authorized persons of any private enterprise that enters into contracts worth more than 5,000.00 KM annually with bodies financed from the budget at any level of government.

Since no body responsible for sanctioning conflicts of interest has been formed in the Federation of BiH since 2013, Transparency International has submitted a complaint to the Ethics Commission of the FBiH Parliament, whose Code of Ethics requires parliamentarians to resign from their position if a conflict of interest or incompatibility of functions occurs under the applicable Law. Additionally, Transparency International contacted the City of Cazin administration asking whether the mayor was aware of the conflict of interest involving Irfan Durić and whether his private company “Voće-Durić” Ltd., as a bidder in the public procurement process, submitted written statements that he had not participated in corrupt activities?

The City of Cazin’s response states that the bidder submitted declarations required by the Public Procurement Law, declaring that they had not offered bribes or participated in actions aimed at corruption in the mentioned public procurement, and emphasized that the mayor does not conduct the public procurement process and therefore has no insight into the documentation and is not aware of any potential conflict of interest involving Durić.

It is important to note that the current mayor of Cazin, Nermin Ogrešević, is also the president of the People’s European Alliance (NES), as is Irfan Durić, who is serving his second mandate in the FBiH Parliament on behalf of that party, which he entered in 2018 as a member of A-SDA.

This and similar examples clearly show that the existing Law on Conflict of Interest in the Federation of BiH allows institutions to avoid jurisdiction, meaning many forms of conflict of interest cannot be sanctioned, and that it needs to be changed urgently. Nevertheless, the new Government of this entity, led by Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić, after loud announcements about ending the practice of tolerating conflicts of interest shown by the previous government, shortly after appointment withdrew all laws from parliamentary procedure, including the one on conflict of interest, which was never returned or adopted.

TI BiH has long advocated for changes and improvements to the conflict of interest law, especially since it is one of the 14 key priorities that the EU has set for BiH on its path to candidate status.