News in English     | 23.01.2020. 12:47 |

BiH among the countries declining the most in the fight against corruption

FENA Muamer Selimbegovic

SARAJEVO, January 23 (FENA) - According to the Corruption Perception Index list, BiH has fallen down by 11 places, and received the worst rating in the last 8 years, which placed it among the countries most declining in the anti-corruption fight.

Under the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of the Transparency International, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been rated 36 this year (on the scale 0-100), which represents the worst rating since 2012, or since the Corruption Perception Index – CPI has been established on the current methodology, placing BiH thus among the countries most declining in global.

The Index rating list published by Transparency International shows that BiH has fallen down by 11 places compared to its position last year, and now it shares 101st position with Kosovo, out of 180 countries in total. Croatia is the best ranked of the countries in the region, although it has also declined by 3 places, taking the position 63. Montenegro and Serbia are ranked the same like last year and take 66th and 91st position respectively, while North Macedonia fell from 93rd to 106th position and is currently holding the worst position in the region.

This was highlighted today at the Transparency International press conference in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TIBiH), which presented the results of the CPI for 2019, with a focus on the relationship between politics, money and corruption, with an emphasis on (non)transparency of political party financing and the decision-making process, and in the case of BiH, the situation in the judiciary.

According to the report, such huge decline of BiH is a result of irregularities in election procedure, law on financing political parties and election campaigns, which deprived citizens of the right to have free and fair elections, which was something

TI BiH pointed out during its monitoring over election campaign. BiH is one of the countries with a constant increase in the most serious forms of political corruption due to which it cannot guarantee its citizens basic human rights.

TI BiH Steering Board Chairman Srđan Blagovčanin warned that the data speaks for itself and that the key messages of the CPI findings are that BiH has managed to further exacerbate the already catastrophic situation in the fight against corruption, witnessing the escalation of the problem and the further 'collapse' of the country, as well as the absence of basic human rights, especially in the sphere of the electoral process, that is, ensuring the conditions for free and fair elections in BiH.

“Corruption in BiH has become an official state, entity and cantonal policy. Behind every appointment, public call, tender and regulation, if analyzed more deeply, what is concealed underneath is unequivocally corruption,” Blagovčanin said, recalling the findings of the state audit which found that in 85 percent of cases of public procurement contracts there were breaches of certain procedures/contractual obligations.

Referring to the situation in the BiH judiciary, Blagovčanin underlines that "not a single case of political corruption in BiH has been prosecuted so far."

According to him, the bad news is that in the fight against corruption in BiH there was no contribution from the European Union, that is, the concrete effects of the strategy for the Western Balkans announced by the EU in 2018.

In this regard, TI BiH considers that Reinhard Priebe’s report (Senior EU Independent Legal Expert), on the BiH judiciary is a great missed opportunity, “because, apart from general points and repetitions of already well-known facts, this report did not make specific recommendations for overcoming very bad situation in the judiciary."

TIBiH Executive Director Ivana Korajlić expressed concern over the decline of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in 2019 recorded the worst result since 2012, and shares 101st position with Kosovo.

She recalled that, unfortunately, there is a regressive trend throughout the region when it comes to the fight against corruption and the CPI, and that one of the causes, in general, is the derogation of basic democratic principles and mechanisms, as well as instability in the regional framework, which results in dysfunctional institutions, inefficient processing of corruption and lack of integrity in the implementation of all relevant processes and reforms.

TI BiH has prepared a set of measures that should systematically address the causes of corruption, related to improving the electoral process in BiH and reforming the judiciary, as well as auditing the public sector and public companies.

According to the results of the mentioned research, in the context of global ranking on the CPI scale, the group of countries with the least degree of corruption gathers New Zealand, Denmark, Finland Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland, with indexes from 85 to 87, while Somalia is at the bottom of the scale, together with South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.

(FENA) S. R.

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