It is not uncommon for employees of public institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to keep their jobs even after admitting in court that they got the job by paying bribes of several thousand BAM.
A number of witnesses admitted before the court that they reached the public office by paying bribes. Some of them are still in an illegally acquired employment relationship in public institutions such as the Health Center and the General Hospital in Sarajevo, Elektroprivreda BiH as well.
What are the most famous examples?
On July 29th, the Municipal Court in Sarajevo sentenced Amir Zukic, former general secretary of the SDA and representative in the Parliament of the Federation of BiH (FBiH), one of the two entities of BiH, to three years in prison for selling jobs in the public service.
Safet Bibic, President of the municipal organization BPS – Sefer Halilovic in Visoko, not far from Sarajevo, received the longest, six-year prison sentence. During the sentencing, he was described as a well-connected organizer of the group.
Bibic is an employee of the Sarajevo University Clinical Center, a lecturer-assistant at the Faculty of Health Studies in Sarajevo, and a member of the administrative and supervisory boards of four public institutions in Canton Sarajevo (CS), one of the ten cantons of the FBiH.
Mehmed Mandra, a porter at the public institution Health Center of CS, testified against Bibic, and for his testimony, he was granted immunity from criminal prosecution.
He said in court that he found out in 2009 that he could get a job through the accused Bibic, who hired him that year as a porter at the Health Center of CS.
A job as a nurse in a hospital for 15.000 BAM, a box of chocolates, and perfume.
In 2016, porter Mandra connected Bibic with Sanela Karagic-Sadibasic, whom he, using his connections, employed as a nurse at the General Hospital in Sarajevo that same year.
Mandra said that Bibic demanded that Karagic-Sadibasic pay 15.000 BAM (7.680 euros) for the position of nurse and that 3.000 marks (1.500 euros) should be paid in advance.
”It was important for me to work because of the insurance of the child who is constantly in hospitals. I subconsciously knew that there was no other way and that it was impossible without money,” she said, explaining why she decided to pay for employment.
”I was particularly hurt when he told me to prepare a good box of chocolates and perfume for a woman under 45. I gave the last 100 BAM (50 euros) for that and I will never forgive them,” she said, crying.
Why is it not easy to prove bribery?
Jasmina Ific, a former prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH who has been working as a lawyer in a private law office in Sarajevo in recent years, explains that accepting bribes and trading in influence are complex acts that are very difficult to prove in court.
”Persons who gave bribes are a very important means of proof, without which it is almost impossible to prove this crime,” says Ific, and explains that it is, therefore, the practice of prosecutor’s offices to grant such persons immunity and protect them, in order to motivate them to testify.
Ific explains that the Prosecutor’s Office protects the witnesses by not proposing in the indictment to the court to order by the judgment that illegally acquired benefits, ie paid salaries and contributions, be confiscated from illegally employed persons.
She adds that institutions where an illegally employed person works can initiate administrative proceedings and annul the decision on the employment of a person if he was employed on the basis of a bribe and repeat the competition procedure in a legal manner. This is possible only after a final judgment has been passed, RSE writes.
E.Dz.
