The Commission for Deciding on Conflicts of Interest in BiH determined at today’s session that the director of the Communications Regulatory Agency of BiH, Draško Milinović, violated the law because he heads the Tennis Association of RS, which received tens of millions of KM from the budget for the construction of tennis courts in Banja Luka. This case was reported to the Commission by Transparency International in BiH (TI BIH) last year, and Milinović was penalized with a 10% salary reduction for the next 6 months due to conflict of interest. The case is also contentious because the transfer of money to the Association’s accounts avoided the tender process for the construction of this facility, which TI BiH also warned about.
At the same session, no sanction was imposed against Nermin Nikšić, who was reported by TI BIH while he was serving as a representative in the House of Representatives of the PS BiH, because his son is the director of a company that did business with the public company “Igman” d.d. Konjic, which is clearly prohibited by law. After the session, it was stated that the proceedings against Nikšić were suspended.
For the same situation, TI BIH reported the then member of the Presidency Milorad Dodik two years ago, because companies of his close family members were receiving contracts from the state. However, that case was never considered, and today it was placed under “miscellaneous” at the Commission’s session. It was stated that the decision was not prepared and the Commission does not have the materials to work on, so they will address everything at the next session. We remind that the work of this Commission has been blocked for years due to the political way of making decisions, and this is the first session in this convocation of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
At the same session, a decision was made to initiate proceedings against the current Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of BiH, Sevlid Hurtić who was reported by TI BiH for conflict of interest, because he is the owner of the Publishing House “NAM” from Tuzla, which recently won over 1.4 million KM in two tenders, even though private companies of state officials are explicitly prohibited from entering into contracts worth more than 5,000 KM with any budget-funded body.
The Commission, also following a report by TI BiH, initiated proceedings against the new director of BH Telecom, Amel Kovačević, former advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, Elmedin Konaković. Kovačević was appointed as the general director, even though the law does not allow advisors of elected officials to manage public companies for six months after the end of their mandate.
At today’s session, among other things, sanctions were imposed on the representative in the House of Representatives of BiH, Obren Petrović, as well as the former director of the Agency for Medicines of BiH, Aleksandar Zolak.
