Due to violations of the Election Law and the Law on Financing of Political Parties, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) banned 28 parties from participating in the October General Elections. As stated in the audit of the financing of political parties published by the Centers for Civil Initiatives, only 9 percent of political parties did not find a violation of the Law. And the procedure of determining responsibility was initiated against 51 parties.
The financial resources provided for the financing of political parties, mostly from the budget, were not used exclusively to achieve the goals set by their program and statute.
– The parties did not keep records on the receipt of membership fees and voluntary contributions and did not report those contributions in the financial statements.
– Funds from membership fees and voluntary contributions, which were received in cash, were not paid into the transaction account of the political party.
– They made contributions above the limit.
– A significant number of parties were financed from prohibited sources,
– A significant number of political parties did not report transaction accounts with commercial banks, through which they performed financial transactions.
And this is not all. There are many more examples of how the Law on Financing of Political Parties in BiH is violated and how budget money is spent in a non-transparent manner, without any supervision and control. Namely, huge funds have been allocated from the state budget for the financing of political parties for years. In the last three years alone, 75 million marks have been set aside, while some parties have received another three million, also public money. The CEC explained that the process of determining responsibility has been initiated against 51 parties and that abuse in spending budget money has been noticed in 6 parties. Transparency International also warns of violations of the Law on Financing of Political Parties.
“During the last year, we did one monitor advertising, in the media and on billboards, and we established that political parties showed twice fewer funds in reports than we found in only two forms of advertising, which shows that political parties hide who finance them, they hide real sources of funding. Some cases that investigators are now uncovering show that most of these funds come from public sources, ” stressed Srdjan Traljic of Transparency International BiH.
And it is not surprising then why the government in BiH does not want to improve the Law on Financing of Political Parties, which is one of the 14 priorities of the European Union (EU). Because as it is at the moment, it does not limit them in anything. And then all the strong warnings and appeals are useless.
”In all countries, there is a budget for parties, should it be in this way and to the same extent as in BiH, and that is the reason why politics is the most lucrative business and occupation in our country. Maybe a different way of distributing funds wouldreduce the number of political parties because what we have in BiH is totally unacceptable, “ said Vehid Sehic, Tuzla Citizens’ Forum.
The financing of political parties in BiH is regulated by a law adopted in 2012. The law has a number of shortcomings that allow political parties to abuse it without being held criminally liable. Change of law has been demanded many times so far, but there was no political will.
