On the occasion of the “Stickers” affair, Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) decided to file a criminal complaint against the Minister of Communications and Transport in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vojin Mitrović.
With the rulebook that entered into force on September 1, Mitrović predicted that the Ministry could entrust the work of purchasing stickers, which until now was performed by state institutions, to an “expert institution” that would be chosen through a public competition. It is foreseen that drivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to pay the fee to that “expert institution” chosen by the Ministry in the future when registering their vehicle, which practically means that significant public funds would be diverted to a private company.
TI BiH emphasizes that everything was done illegally because the minister can only prescribe provisions on the appearance and content of the sticker with a rulebook, which is an act of lower legal force, but public powers can only be given by law. They emphasize that not a single article of the Law on the Basics of Road Traffic Safety in Bosnia and Herzegovina prescribes that the minister has the authority to prescribe who will procure stickers and collect public revenues.
TI BiH believes that Mitrović committed the criminal offense of abuse of official position or authority from Article 220 of the Criminal Code of BiH, which can be committed by an official if he exceeds his authority in order to obtain benefits for himself or others.
As the main evidence of the intention to obtain personal benefit, TI cites the condition in the regulation that persons employed as team members in an “expert institution” must possess certain certificates that a few years ago, during the million-dollar procurement of software for the Forests of the Republika Srpska, only one company possessed. received tens of millions of marks in tenders in the RS.
They point out that an additional problem is that a private company is given the competences already held by the state agency for identification documents, records and data exchange. They state that the Ministry ignored the opinion of the aforementioned agency that the introduction of expensive new technology that would do the same thing is unnecessary and will cost drivers extra. They added that a big problem is the possibility that a private company has technology that allows it to locate and track vehicles.
They conclude that, bearing in mind all of the above, it is evident that this is again about the adoption of regulations that are exclusively tailored to individuals, and that this is an obvious example of a captive state where institutions serve the interests of individuals and the ruling elite instead of the public interest.
