RS Banking Agency Illegally Hiding Information about Bobar Banka

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TIBiH) has won an administrative dispute against the RS Banking Agency due to the failure to submit the Final Report on the temporary administration in the case of Bobar Banka, the Patria News Agency reports.

TIBiH requested this report, as well as information on the proceedings, from the Agency more than a year ago, and the Agency refused access to information, citing business secrets and the protection of commercial interests, after which TIBiH filed a lawsuit against the Agency with the competent court for violating the Law on Freedom of Access to Information.

The Basic Court in Banja Luka fully accepted TIBiH's arguments, stating that the Agency, contrary to the Law on Freedom of Access to Information, refused to provide the report, and that it placed itself above the public interest and the Law. The explanation of the verdict also states that it is unclear which commercial interests the Agency invoked, given that Bobar Banka had already been liquidated at that time.

This verdict confirmed TIBiH's position that the Banking Agency illegally refuses to provide all information that would justify its work as a regulatory body in the scandals shaking the financial sector of Republika Srpska in the last two years. The Final Report, with an explanation of the measures taken in the Bobar Banka case, was supposed to explain the work of the temporary administration to the public after the bank's closure and shed light on the facts about its operations.

There is no legal reason why this report on Bobar Banka should be kept secret, especially since there is enormous public interest, which suggests that the information is being hidden to avoid determining the Agency's responsibility in this case. TIBiH is satisfied that the Basic Court ruled in favor of the public and expects the Banking Agency to urgently publish the disputed Final Report on the temporary administration of Bobar Banka following this verdict of the Basic Court.

Since the opening of the Bobar Banka affair, TIBiH has strived to disclose information about its operations, which the Agency systematically refused to provide. As a reminder, the Bobar Banka affair began the instability in the financial sector back in 2014, and according to the criminal complaint filed by the RS Banking Agency, about ten million marks disappeared from the bank, and a large number of illegal loan agreements were concluded, which the BiH Prosecutor's Office is investigating.

After TIBiH determined that the District Prosecutor's Office in Bijeljina refused to initiate an investigation, and the Special Prosecutor's Office determined that there was no form of organized crime in this case, TIBiH sent a request to the Republic Prosecutor's Office to resolve the conflict of jurisdiction, after which it transferred the case to the state prosecutor's office.

It is high time that investigations into cases related to the collapse of the banking sector in RS receive an institutional epilogue, and in this regard, the responsibility of the Banking Agency must not remain undetermined. In this light, TIBiH welcomes today's action by the investigative bodies and the first arrests of those responsible for criminal acts, but hopes that this case, like many others, will not end with spectacular arrests, but will soon receive an adequate judicial epilogue.