After the Government of the Federation appointed Rusmir Isak as director of the Zenica Penitentiary, many questions were raised. How is it possible that the son of the Federal Minister of the Interior, Ramo Isak, ends up in this position, and is the Law on Conflict of Interest violated? Who is in charge of supervising just such cases?
Rusmir Isak, the newly appointed director of the Zenica Penitentiary, is the son of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Federation, Ramo Isak, and the brother of Arnel Isak, a representative in the House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A conflict of interest was formally avoided, as Minister Isak did not vote for this appointment, and this was supported by the fact that there is no body in the Federation that would determine all this. The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina had the authority to determine violations of the Law on Conflict of Interest. However, after the removal of jurisdiction, the law is not implemented, according to our interlocutors.
“Unfortunately, this conflict of interest has not been implemented in our country for a long time. The law on conflict of interest is very clear. It is known what a minister, representative, adviser can do, it is known who the immediate and wider family members are, it is known to whom it applies. It’s just not known who applies it,” says lawyer Nermin Vila.
In addition to the fact that there is no regulatory body to determine violations of the Law on Conflict of Interest, public institutions and institutes are not covered by this law, although they have huge financial resources, and certainly have examples of nepotism in their own ranks. On this occasion, we wanted to talk to the Prime Minister of the Federation, but we did not receive a response, nor from Minister Rama Isak and Rusmir Isak. Nevertheless, it is clear that such appointments send a very clear message to citizens.
“It is certainly not a decision that a large part of the citizens of the Federation, including directly the voters of the Coalition of Three parties, will applaud. I am afraid that in the first elections, he will tell them what he thinks about that decision”, says academician Slavo Kukić.
The biography of the new director of the prison, Rusmir Isak, does not differ much from the path taken by the rest of the family. He was involved in politics, so he was a councilor in the City Council of Zenica. He was elected in the local elections and remained in that position for 12 months. He currently serves as the director of a security agency owned by the Isak family.
“The problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina is that we have such a system and that we are used to it and we do not protest against such a system of appointments exclusively on a party basis. And it’s not just that it’s a party thing, but we absolutely don’t know what the qualities of the people they appoint are, and we’ve often been able to convince ourselves that they don’t have the qualities to manage those functions,” says political analyst Ivana Marić.
After the decision, none of the members of the FBiH Government commented on this appointment in public.
“Probably, if I were in that situation, I would avoid the comment myself, because a person cannot help but blush trying to find an answer to a decision that cannot be justified by anything,” adds Kukić.
There is still no explanation and concrete answer from those who could at least try to explain this appointment and the possible conflict of interest. And the public expects an answer, Federalna writes.
