prijava
BANJA LUKA, September 24 (FENA) - Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) warns that the appointment of Nikola Špirić to the Committee for Election and Monitoring the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption (APIK) makes all efforts in the fight against corruption meaningless.
According to a statement from TI BiH, the Parliamentary Assembly elected a politician to the parliamentary body who, according to the official information of the American government, was involved in high corruption and bribery in connection with the public functions he performed. Špirić and his family have been banned from entering the United States because of their involvement in corruption.
“The Committee, as an independent body of the Parliamentary Assembly, oversees the work of APIK, and has a key role in the process of appointing and dismissing the management of the only institution whose mandate is dedicated exclusively to the fight against corruption. By appointing Špirić, the legislature gives an opportunity to a politician who is facing the most serious accusations of corruption to monitor, supervise and influence the work of the anti-corruption agency,” the TI BiH stated.
TI BiH reminds that the role of the Committee has been controversial so far, so the last published report on the work of the Committee is the one for 2017, while the last session was held more than two years ago. The inefficiency of the parliamentary oversight is also shown by the fact that the deputy director of APIK was not elected as much.
He also reminds of the warning of FBiH auditors that since 2015 the conditions have not been created to apply the Law on Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime in FBiH because accommodation facilities for special departments for suppression of corruption, organized and inter-cantonal crime at the Prosecutor's Office and Supreme Court of FBiH have not been provided. At the same time, the First Deputy is performing the duty of the Chief Prosecutor of the FBiH, although the period for which he was appointed has expired, and the number of unresolved cases in the FBiH Prosecutor's Office is increasing.
“Ineffective parliamentary oversight of an independent anti-corruption institution and the appointment of a politician accused of high corruption to the parliamentary body that oversees the institution's work, as well as government resistance to providing funding for special prosecutors' offices for organized crime and corruption, reveal that Bosnia and Herzegovina has not the slightest political will to fight corruption. Instead of creating conditions for the fight against corruption, legal, institutional and financial preconditions are being created to prevent any attempt to fight corruption,” the TI BiH announced.
(FENA) A. B.
