It is increasingly clear that Bosnia and Herzegovina will not soon receive a new Law on the Prevention of Conflicts of Interest, which is one of the main preconditions for candidate status in the European Union. The proposal, which is in the process, did not receive the support of the Constitutional and Legal Commission of the House of Peoples. The proposal envisages relocating decisions on conflicts of interest outside BiH Parliament, the range of close relatives is expanding, and the conflict of interest is descending to lower levels of government.
An unconditional “yes” to membership in the European Union is part of the policies and election promises of almost all politicians and parliamentary parties. But there is no way to move from words to deeds. The draft law on the prevention of conflicts of interest in BiH institutions received a negative opinion from the Constitutional and Legal Commission of the House of Peoples. Of the six members, as many as five were against, including all members of the SNSD and HDZ BiH.
“It is really inexplicable for me because we did exactly what they demanded, hoping that this time, when everything is harmonized, this proposal will get the support of the Constitutional Commission of the House of Peoples,” said Jasmin Emric, proposer of the Law on Conflict of Interest.
This proposal was sent to the procedure by 10 opposition deputies from the House of Representatives. They have been trying to “push” him for five years. They say they witnessed the same scenario last year. It was adopted in the House of Representatives, but did not reach the House of Peoples. The SNSD and HDZ BiH have submitted about 40 amendments, and most of them, the opposition claims, have been accepted. The SNSD delegates BHRT contacted were not in the mood to explain. For HDZ this time, the principles on which the document is based were controversial. They say that they do not like the fact that he was proposed by the deputies, and not by the Council of Ministers.
“Everywhere in the world, laws to prevent conflicts of interest are preventive. I think this law is set as repressive. And that was one of the reasons. I think that to pass a law for the sake of law, we already have a law on prevention of conflicts of interest “, states Lidija Bradara, member of the constitutional law commission of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of BiH (HDZ BiH).
And according to the valid law, the conflict of interests of deputies or delegates is decided by the same deputies or delegates. The new proposal envisions the formation of an independent commission to deal with the issue. Its members would not be able to perform any public function and would work within the Agency for Prevention of Corruption. Transparency International (TI BiH), which worked on the document with the OSCE, says that is what bothers the ruling parties the most.
“What is worrying is that many are not in a conflict of interest by being in two positions, but many of them are in three or even four positions. What is worse than those salaries and direct incomes, they decide directly on their own interest, to accept the financial reports of some other institutions headed by them, to allocate money to some associations headed by them “, points out Damjan Ozegovic from TI BiH.
This law is one of the main conditions for candidate status for membership in the European Union. If the negative opinion of the commission is accepted at the session of the House of Peoples, which is scheduled for Monday, its parliamentary life will be interrupted again. Interestingly, the BiH Ministry of Justice has prepared another version of this law. It was in the form of a draft, but after the suggestions of the Venice Commission, it was withdrawn from the procedure and returned for revision.
According to the non-governmental sector, this proposal is only cosmetics and does not fundamentally change anything in relation to the existing law. According to data from the beginning of last year, 61 officials were sitting in two, three or even four seats, BHRT writes.
