Transparency International in BiH reported seven political parties to the Central Election Commission for receiving legally prohibited contributions from private companies doing business with the state. These are HDZ BiH, SDP BiH, SDA, Republican Party of Srpska, Forward BiH, Democratic Front, and Social Democrats. These parties received a total of 15 prohibited contributions, while numerous large parties such as SNSD again failed to report a single mark in donations from private companies, raising suspicions of concealing funding sources.
HDZ BiH had the most prohibited contributions, one of which came from the company “AGIP d.o.o. Brčko” which signed contracts worth over 700,000 KM with the Brčko District authorities, thereby violating the Law on Political Party Financing. A much bigger problem than the modest donation to HDZ of 1,500 KM is certainly the fact that companies receiving significant contracts from the state are being connected in any way with political parties that have participated in government for years and make the most important decisions.
HDZ donors also included the company Matisa d.o.o. which had three public procurement contracts with executive authorities worth more than 60,000 KM last year, while the company Posing received tenders from Posavina Canton and Odžak Municipality.
Among SDP BiH donors was the company Euromeat d.o.o which donated 3,000 KM to the party, although it has a food procurement contract with the Ministry of Defense of BiH led by SDP’s Zukan Helez, under a framework agreement to receive a total of 228,000 KM by 2027. Also questionable for this party is the donation from the company Europrost d.o.o. which did business with Posušje Municipality with which it has a contract worth over 90,000 KM.
An interesting example is the company “Kop i ko” which donated to both SDP BiH and SDA, and signed contracts last year with numerous municipalities where these parties participate in government, while the total value of these contracts exceeds one million KM. For SDA, donations from companies “Inter-com Živinice” which also did business with the state are also questionable.
In the same context, TI BiH has repeatedly pointed out that the company “Tehnički remont Bratunac” illegally finances the Republican Party of Srpska to which it donated 45,000 KM last year alone. This company signs a contract with the RS Ministry of Interior every year for vehicle maintenance worth over 49,000 KM without VAT and by law has no right to finance a political party. This donation is also questionable because Republika Srpska still has a ownership stake in Tehnički remont Bratunac, and the company director is a member of parliament and president of this party, Slavenko Ristić.
Three modest donations were also received by the Social Democrats BiH from companies “AKVA INVEST”, “EM-Electronics”, “HOLEX”, which also received tenders in amounts greater than the permitted 10,000 in 2024, while the Democratic Front received a prohibited donation from the company “Den Alm Company” from Tuzla. Likewise, the company “Almy d.o.o” Zenica donated to the Forward BiH party although it signed dozens of public procurement contracts last year and should not have been among political party donors.
All parties in BiH reported a total of 433,756 KM in private company donations, which is only 1.48% of their reported income. A quarter of this amount was reported by SDA, which reports the largest portion of private company donations every year. Other parties report much smaller amounts, and the vast majority of them, as many as 113 parties out of 138 that submitted reports to the CEC, did not report a single mark in income from private companies.
This raises numerous other questions because TI BiH data shows that SNSD alone spent at least one million marks more on the election campaign than the party reported in its financial report, which did not show a single mark in private company donations. In previous years, SNSD reported some donations it was not obligated to pay (such as Ceca Ražnatović’s concert at the final rally), but this was also omitted this year, raising the legitimate question of what funds were used to finance at least one million KM in election campaign costs for this party. SNSD’s coalition partners United Srpska, Socialist Party, DNS, SPS, NPS also did not report a single mark in income from legal entities in their financial reports.
Other large parties such as PDP and SDP also did not report significant amounts of non-monetary donations, and this is particularly questionable because TI BiH determined a large difference between actual campaign costs and those reported in financial reports for these parties.
Parties reported a total of about 367,000 KM in non-monetary donations, with the largest amount (39,000) reported by Our Party, mainly relating to internet advertising costs paid by the candidates themselves. SDA reported about 37,000 in non-monetary donations in the same way.
Also, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Initiative Fuad Kasumović reported only budget income of 165,000 as almost the only income of this party, along with one individual donation of 500 KM. This party officially stated that it has over 200,000 in administrative costs, while it spent only 4,200 KM on the campaign, which is completely absurd, because according to TI BiH data, their campaign cost at least 220,000 KM including billboards, media, social networks, and pre-election rallies. Since this party officially owes nothing to anyone, the legitimate question arises of who paid for the campaign costs that are clearly documented.
Who Do the Parties Owe
A large number of parties show election campaign costs through unpaid obligations, which amounted to 6.9 million KM in 2024. Some of these obligations have been carried in party reports for years, but these debts have still been significantly reduced from 2018 when they amounted to 11 million KM.
SDP BiH has the largest debt of over one million KM, with the largest portion from previous years relating to debt to the consumer goods retail chain Eso-Promet from Stolac. It is unclear what goods or services this company provided to SDP, and TI BiH has previously pointed to questionable debts of this party, which CEC auditors have also highlighted.
SNSD has significantly reduced its obligations compared to the previous period to only 73,000 KM, while the Socialist Party still owes 80,000 to the family company of their former BiH Parliament member Jakov Galić – November 6th, and according to information from the Capital portal, the party recently filed a lawsuit because the debt was not forgiven.
DNS, relative to the party’s size, has significant debts of over 250,000 KM, and one Milenko Cvetković lent the party 100,000 KM. From earlier, this party carries obligations to “Porsche Finance Group” which have now been reduced to 57,000 KM. Significant loans were reported by HDZ 1990 (56,000 KM) and Our Party (60,600 KM), mainly consisting of loans given by prominent party members. The most significant loan to Our Party of 20,000 KM was given by the party president and minister in the Council of Ministers, Edin Forto.
Parties reported a total of 29 million KM in income, with the largest portion, 20 million, coming from the budget, and TI BiH has repeatedly pointed to the enormous discrepancy between what parties report and what they state in their financial reports. For the last elections alone, according to TI BiH data, they concealed 2.6 million KM in election campaign costs in their financial reports.
