The Appeals Commission of Republika Srpska has annulled the decision to terminate the conflict of interest investigation of Milan Tegeltija, advisor to the President of Republika Srpska who until recently headed the management of FK Borac Banjaluka. This accepts Transparency International BiH’s appeal and orders the Commission for Determining Conflicts of Interest to conduct the entire procedure again and determine how much money FK Borac received from the budget, and whether Tegeltija held two incompatible positions.
However, despite the clear position of the second-instance body, the Commission refuses to do this, so the final word will likely be given by the District Court in Banja Luka. In the new decision signed by the Commission’s president Obrenka Slijepčević, it is stated that conducting a repeated procedure against Tegeltija is “contrary to the RS Constitution” and recent Law amendments by which the National Assembly of RS practically legalized the conflict of interest situation in which Milorad Dodik’s advisor had been.
The body has referred to the same argumentation before, but the Appeals Commission’s decision clearly stated that the amended law cannot be applied retroactively because the legal provisions in force until then clearly prohibited advisors to highest officials from heading associations that receive budget funding exceeding 100,000 KM.
As Tegeltija simultaneously held the position of advisor, and from April 2023 also the president of the club’s management which received over 2 million marks from the RS budget, according to TI BiH it is completely clear that there was a conflict of interest and that the law amendments adopted in September last year cannot change this.
We remind that Tegeltija, in his explanation to the media, interpreted that he “is not in conflict of interest” because he does not receive a salary for work in the club, and shortly after that, the NSRS amended just one article of that law and exempted officials who do not receive compensation for work in the association from this prohibition.
Besides this being an evident example of laws being tailored to individuals, it remains questionable in which procedure it was determined that the head of FK Borac did not receive any compensation for work in the club, given that the competent authority completely refuses to conduct the procedure. TI BiH has previously warned that these amendments would legalize the situation in which, besides Tegeltija, numerous other officials who simultaneously lead budget-funded associations find themselves.
The purpose of this law was to prevent officials from distributing budget money to their own associations and private enterprises, so the appearance of conflict of interest should never have been reduced to receiving a salary. This provision will enable the unhindered withdrawal of public money through non-governmental organizations connected to the authorities in the future.
