Bobar Affair: TI BiH Demands Public Hearing of Slavica Injac in National Assembly of RS

Transparency International BiH (TI BiH) has sent a request to the members of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska to propose a public hearing of the Director of the Banking Agency of RS, Slavica Injac, before this committee in order to determine responsibility in the Bobar Bank affair, reports the Patria News Agency. 

As the Banking Agency, as the supervisory body of the financial system, is directly responsible to the National Assembly for its work, TI BiH emphasized that the members of the Finance and Budget Committee should use the legally prescribed possibility of inviting Injac for a public hearing, as this will show that they serve the public interest and understand the control, as well as the democratic role of the legislative body.

TI BiH reminds that Injac, among other things, openly told citizens that they should control the work of banks themselves, and that the Agency she heads refused to hand over the Final Report of the temporary administrator of Bobar Bank, and that to this day citizens have no information about the circumstances of Bobar Bank's closure and the Agency's actions in this case.

Public hearings and the formation of inquiry committees are very common practices in democratic societies when it is necessary to resolve a political affair of particular importance. The evident damage caused by the closure of Bobar Bank and the doubts created about the work of supervisory bodies, as well as the purposefulness of their existence, require the use of all available political means to determine responsibility.

From the moment the temporary administration procedure was opened for Bobar Bank a.d. Bijeljina, Injac, through irresponsible conduct, inappropriate statements, and persistent concealment of data from the public, has increased suspicions about the legality of the work of the Banking Agency of RS, her personal competencies, and that it involves the concealment of illegality.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly of RS, it is necessary for one of the members to propose a public hearing, and then for the majority of the Committee members to support it in order for the public hearing to be held before the Committee. TI BiH proposes that a live broadcast of Slavica Injac's public hearing be provided, and that at the hearing itself, the presence of as many representatives of civil society as possible be allowed so that the public can finally gain insight into the Agency's actions.

If the Finance and Budget Committee ignores TI BiH's call, it will again show the absolute disinterest of the legislators in supervising the work of public institutions and ensuring the accountability of their leaders to the citizens, it was announced from TI BiH.