The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina will hold an extraordinary session today to discuss the situation in the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) after Darko Ćulum resigned from his position as director, a day after the Ministry of Security confirmed that it is working on selecting a new SIPA leadership.
The Council of Ministers’ agenda does not include an initiative to appoint a new Minister of Security of BiH, even though the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH dismissed Nenad Nešić almost two months ago due to corruption charges.
Five parliamentary groups from the House of Representatives of the BiH PA sent an initiative to the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers, Borjana Krišto, on Tuesday to appoint opposition politician from the RS entity Nebojša Vukanović as State Minister of Security. The initiative was signed by the SDS – PDP, SDP, NiP, NS – BHI KF and a mixed group.
Ćulum, a member of Dodik’s SNSD, the ruling party in the RS entity that also participates in government at the state level, resigned after the National Assembly of Republika Srpska passed laws banning the work of the state Court, Prosecutor’s Office, High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, and SIPA in that entity in BiH.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina temporarily suspended the disputed laws.
Ćulum confirmed that he had stepped down from the position of SIPA director “in accordance with the laws adopted by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska”.
Today, the BiH Ministry of Security, which is responsible for SIPA, confirmed that it, together with the BiH Council of Ministers, is “working intensively to resolve the newly created situation and elect a new leadership of the State Investigation and Protection Agency”.
The political crisis in BiH followed after the BiH Court, in late February, sentenced Milorad Dodik to a year in prison and a six-year ban from holding office as President of RS, for “disrespecting the decisions of the High Representative in BiH”, AA writes.
