The Joint Administrative Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PSBiH) has proposed appointing its secretary to the body that decides on conflicts of interest, despite this Committee being responsible for conducting the competition, evaluation, and establishing the ranking list of candidates.
The House of Peoples of PSBiH at its session on October 10, 2024 reviewed and adopted the Report of the Joint Administrative Committee of PSBiH for the appointment of seven members to the Commission for Deciding on Conflicts of Interest in BiH institutions, and it will be presented to the House of Representatives of PSBiH on October 22. At the top of this list, with the highest number of points, was the secretary of the Joint Administrative Committee of PSBiH, who was also conducting the competition procedure and submitted the mentioned Report to the House of Peoples of PSBiH.
The appointment of a person who is simultaneously a candidate in the competition and performs duties in the commission conducting the selection procedure, thereby being in a potential conflict of interest situation themselves, raises questions about impartiality in the appointment process, especially since this concerns appointments to a body that should be deciding on conflicts of interest for officials in BiH institutions.
Moreover, this decision further reduces the already low level of public and civil society trust that BiH institutions are ready and willing to ensure impartial decision-making, prevent and sanction conflicts of interest, and situations where officials’ personal interests potentially conflict with public interests.
The new Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in institutions at the Bosnia and Herzegovina level was supposed to be one of the key reform steps in fighting corruption and advancing EU integration, partly due to the introduction of a Commission free from political influence when deciding on conflicts of interest of high-ranking officials.
For this very reason, it is essential to ensure the Commission’s independence and conduct the selection of its members objectively and impartially.
