The Parliamentary Assembly of BiH appointed Vjekoslav Čerkez as a member of the Council of the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) of BiH, despite his simultaneous employment at HT Eronet, a telecom operator holding multiple licenses issued by the CRA.
HT Eronet is one of three telecommunications operators in BiH, majority-owned by the Government of the Federation of BiH, and holds licenses for fixed and mobile telephony, internet, and other services issued by CRA BiH, which places Čerkez in a direct conflict of interest as defined by the BiH Communications Law and the Agency’s own Code of Ethics.
This means that, as a CRA Council member, Čerkez participates in making decisions that directly affect the company where he is employed and receives compensation, which justifiably calls into question his impartiality, and affects the level of public trust in the transparency and fairness of regulatory processes.
According to the BiH Communications Law, CRA Council members must not have financial or other relationships with Agency license holders. The CRA Code of Ethics further specifies that Council members are not allowed to have any financial or other relationships with Agency license holders.
Vjekoslav Čerkez was appointed as a CRA Council member on October 10, 2024, and alongside him, Iza Razija Mešević, Tomislav Volarić, Tanja Andrić, Damir Šehanović, Alma Čolo, and Zoran Žuža were appointed to the new council. On the Agency’s official website, the Council members’ biographies explicitly state that Čerkez
Since 2000, he has been employed at JP Hrvatske telekomunikacije d.d., Mostar, where he has gained extensive professional knowledge in telecommunications through various positions.
TI BiH sent an inquiry to the CRA to verify information about Vjekoslav Čerkez’s potential conflict of interest, to which the agency responded that they are not competent to verify these allegations and that Council members and the Director General, according to their interpretation, are not subject to disciplinary responsibility, as this only applies to Agency employees. The response states that the commission conducting the CRA Council member appointment procedure reviewed all documents and that Vjekoslav Čerkez submitted a Declaration as part of his application acknowledging Article 22 of the CRA Code of Ethics, without mentioning any further action regarding the conflict of interest in which he found himself.
TI BiH forwarded the same information to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, which, according to the Communications Law, has the authority to dismiss council members found to be in conflict of interest, but has not yet received any information about potential actions.
This and similar situations indicate that conflict of interest in Bosnia and Herzegovina is an increasingly common occurrence that is tolerated and not sanctioned, facilitated by inconsistent and incomplete laws on conflict of interest and ethical standards, as well as the shifting of responsibility and jurisdiction between institutions.
