”It seems that a lot of time has been lost, but very little progress has been made, ” it was stated yesterday in Sarajevo before the start of the conference organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on the occasion of the December 9th, the International Anti-Corruption Day.
The mentioned conference is organized under the auspices of the project “Strengthening Integrity and Transparency in the Public Sector”, implemented by UNDP with the support of the Government of the United Kingdom (UK).
UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in BiH, Stephen Kinloch Pichat, told that “sometimes he has a feeling that citizens are already tired of the constant talk about the need to fight corruption in BiH.”
Hodzic: A number of measures were adopted in Tuzla Canton
The Prime Minister of the Tuzla Canton (TC), Kadrija Hodzic, stressed that a number of measures had been adopted in that canton in terms of the fight against corruption. He said that a broad legal-institutional mechanism had been developed, and reminded that they had also passed a law that had passed parliamentary procedures, concerning the registration, origin,and control of the property of elected officials.
Hodzic added that they made a unique decision, which he saidmay be unique in the world since it prohibits members of the government from employing family members.
Forto: Canton Sarajevo (CS) is a leader in the fight against corruption
The Prime Minister of CS, Edin Forto, explained that the CS Government is the absolute leader in BiH when it comes to anti-corruption fight, emphasizing that this is confirmed by the registers of public sector employees, the Law on Property Registration, the absolute transparency they insist on, as well as criminal charges they file daily against those responsible in public institutions.
“Absolutely unrelated to the political option, we are ready to fight corruption. I believe there is too much talk about the rule of law, and too little is being done to achieve it,” Forto noted.
What they are not satisfied with, he added, and for which they have no way to improve as a government, is the attitude of the prosecutor’s office, and sometimes the courts, towards what they send in the form of information, criminal reports, and generally reports of corruption.
“I think it’s too slow, we want to work on it more. We want to finally see certain people behind bars, “ concluded Forto.
The goal of this conference is “to point out, together with project partners and key institutions, the importance of preventing and combating corruption at the local and cantonal levels, and to exchange examples of good practice in these areas.”
