One hundred and thirty jobs worth around five million euros.
That much has been paid from the budget to “Condor”, a company owned by the family of Ramo Isak, Minister of Police of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), from 2016 until today, according to the public procurement portal.
Transparency International BiH asked several parliamentary commissions to answer whether Minister Isak was in a conflict of interest. There is no one to answer this question because, in this BiH entity, no institution would deal with it.
“In the FBiH, there is no one to complain to for ten years,” said Ivana Korajlic, executive director of Transparency International BiH.
After the adoption of the state law in November 2013, the parliamentary commission decides on the conflict of interest of officials at the BiH level. Entities and Brcko District should, as stated in the state law, pass their laws within 60 days and form their commissions.
The Republika Srpska (RS) did that, and the FBiH is “currently working on a new law”, as Vedran Skobic, Minister of Justice of the FBiH, explained. There is no commission yet.
Thus, for more than ten years, the possibility has been practically opened that a private company owned by the closest relatives of the ministers can win the tenders announced by public companies or institutions.
Work for family businesses
“I am not in a conflict of interest. Those who claim that should read the law carefully. Here, I call on the institutions to immediately investigate everything that concerns me and my family, but let them also investigate those who entered politics without any money, robbed the people and enriched themselves “, said Minister Isak.
The current Minister of Internal Affairs of the FBiH has been a member and representative of several parties since the mid-2000s.
In July 2023, he founded a new party, ”Snaga naroda” (“Strength of the People”), which has one entity representative – his son Arnel, who in April 2023 voted in the Federal Parliament for his father Ramo to be the Minister of Police.
Arnel Isak was later proposed as a member of the parliamentary leadership, but the Parliament of the Federation has not yet voted on it.
At the same time, in September 2023, the Government of the FBiH appointed Ramo‘s second son, Rusmir Isak, as the director of the Penitentiary in Zenica. On that occasion, the father formally “excluded” himself from the vote.
One example of a possible conflict of interest is the current Prime Minister of the Government of the FBiH, Nermin Niksic. He and his brother Mirsad founded the company CTK – Carbid alati, and later he transferred his share to his son Haris.
Why is the law not changed?
Ivana Korajlic, executive director of Transparency International in BiH, says that in the FBiH, there is resistance to the adoption of a new law, because “a large number of ministers and representatives would automatically find themselves in a conflict of interest”.
“There is a law in the FBiH, but it is not valid, because there is no body to which an application can be submitted. When appointments are made, the institutions should take into account the provisions of the law in advance, whether someone will find themselves in a conflict of interest, but they do not do that,” claims Korajlic, Slobodna Evropa writes.
E.Dz.
