For more than 50 reports in which auditors in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) found violations of the law in the last six years, the cantonal prosecutor’s offices decided not to conduct an investigation, according to the latest report of the Federal Audit Office. The Director of the Office says that they waited up to six years for some answers from the prosecutor’s offices.
The Audit Office for Institutions in the FBiH announced in a special publication that from 2016 to 2018, it submitted 115 reports to the cantonal prosecutor’s offices for information and action, pointing out significant irregularities and reasons for qualification of the auditor’s opinions. Although they hoped to establish cooperation with the prosecutor’s offices through direct contacts, the Audit Office points out that for 58 reports they received notifications that no investigation would be conducted or that the irregularities found in the reports were nothing but misdemeanors.
Director of the Audit Office for Institutions in the FBiH, Dzevad Nekic, says that in this institution they are aware of how complex the reports with which they introduced the prosecutors are, but that they require greater attention and dedication.
“The lack of professional staff in the economic profession or the large number of cases in the prosecutor’s offices may be some of the reasons why real results have not been achieved, but I believe that there is always a solution. These are obstacles that should not be a reason not to pay attention to something that can send a strong message,” Nekic explained.
He adds that when the auditors submit a report to the prosecutor’s office, they expect at least an investigation to be carried out or for them to delve into the deeper reasons and to determine whether any damage was done or material benefit was obtained. For this reason, Nekic believes that prosecutors should be given the opportunity to see how their colleagues in European countries work, which use audit reports to initiate an investigation or determine the characteristics of a criminal offense.
The publication presented by the Federal Audit Office talks about uninvestigated reports that show how long-term non-payment of taxes and contributions creates continuous losses in companies that are later paid by citizens, but also how we are losing former economic giants through unscrupulous operations.
Of the 58 auditors’ reports that the prosecutors did not investigate, most of them refer to Canton Sarajevo (CS), 18 of them. According to the number of reports in which irregularities were recorded, public companies and units of local self-governments – municipalities and cities – lead the way, while the next on the list are institutes, cantonal governments and ministries, and companies in which majority ownership is public. The only one against which the competent prosecutor’s office did not initiate an investigation and whose financial statements for 2016 and 2017 were evaluated negatively by federal auditors for two years in a row is the Municipality of Zavidovici.
The Audit Office for Institutions in the FBiH explains that the publication of the report is an attempt to point out to the public the need for synchronized action of all institutions in the chain of responsibility in order to establish the rule of law and the democratic system, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
