The new report of the Global Initiative on Illegal Financial Flows of Crime, once again pointed out all the anomalies of system in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The “cancer” of this country is still corruption, organized crime, money laundering, smuggling of migrants and drug trafficking.
One in a series of alarming data is that in Bosnia and Herzegovina alone, the market for smuggling migrants in 2020 is estimated at 10.5 million euros.
The volume of crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina is growing from year to year, and state institutions are still passive and without the capacity to respond to growing security challenges. Perhaps the most important issue that is particularly emphasized in this report is tax evasion.
As stated, Bosnia and Herzegovina annually loses more than 60 million euros due to tax evasion. Estimates show that more than 20 percent of the tobacco market in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro is illegal, and that the two countries are transit countries to multi-profit destinations in the European Union.
The report also states that the Port of Bar is the main entry point for illegal financial flows in the region, and that most of the illegally acquired money goes to real estate, tourism, construction and gambling.
“As for BiH in particular, we have processed a case study, the misuse of public funds to finance political parties through the NGO sector in BiH, we must recognize that this is the first way to shed light on the weakening of the civil sector, is it now conscious because the civil sector is a strong corrector in society that should address the phenomenon of corruption and organizational crime,” says Anesa Agovic, coordinator of the Global Initiative for the Western Balkans.
Revenues earned from corruption, tax evasion and organized crime laundering in the economies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, as stated, are estimated at two to five percent of annual gross domestic product. That is, from one and a half billion to almost 4 billion marks.
Source: Federalna
