The company DHD Zenica, owned by the wife of federal representative Arnel Isak, continued to receive jobs in public authority tenders although this is explicitly prohibited by the still valid Law on Conflict of Interest in FBiH Government Bodies.
Therefore, Transparency International in BiH requested a reaction from the Ethics Committee of the FBiH Parliament because the Code of Ethics requires representatives to resign from their position if a conflict of interest or incompatibility of functions occurs under the applicable Law. This committee has the ability to impose certain sanctions, and it is known that the competent body that determines conflict of interest in FBiH has not existed since 2013.
The latest in a series of tenders won by this family company is worth approximately 55,000 KM and according to the Fokus portal relates to the successive procurement of fuel for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Zenica-Doboj Canton.
In addition, this company last year also concluded a framework agreement for the procurement of fuel, oils and lubricants with the Institute for Food Health and Safety Zenica worth approximately 93 thousand KM (excluding VAT). There is also a tender from JP “Grijanje” Zenica worth nearly 26 thousand KM, as well as a job for JP for managing sports facilities Zenica worth nearly 11 thousand KM.
The company had no revenue in 2023, and last year it reported a turnover of 2.5 million KM and a profit of over 84,000 KM in its report.
TI BiH has previously warned about conflict of interest because companies owned by the Ramo and Arnel Isak family have received significant jobs from FBiH government institutions since their entry into power.
The company Condor d.o.o. Zenica, which was previously owned by the wife of FBiH Minister of Internal Affairs Ramo Isak, was previously part of a consortium that won an Elektroprivreda BiH tender worth nearly 14 million KM.
Following pressure from the public and international community, there was a change in ownership structure, so the company has been owned by Arnesa Memić since November last year.
The Isak family case is a blatant example of open violation of the Law and abuse of the legal vacuum that arose in 2013 when the authority to determine conflict of interest was taken away from CIK. Since then, for 12 years, there has been no competent body in this entity that determines conflict of interest, and the authorities have avoided adopting a new law through numerous obstructions.
The current FBiH Government withdrew important anti-corruption laws from parliamentary procedure “for revision” in May 2023, including the Draft Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest. TI BiH then warned that valuable time would be lost because the withdrawn proposal had already passed certain procedures and harmonizations.
The government never returned the new law to procedure again, despite declarative commitment to fighting corruption and fulfilling priorities on the European path, where improvement of laws regulating this area at all levels is explicitly required. Therefore, we have open examples of violations of the conflict of interest law, where family companies of public officials freely receive lucrative jobs.
