Arrogant attitude towards property: How to wreck a car at the state's expense

A criminal complaint has been filed against three high-ranking officials of the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of abuse of office, Patria learns.

They are Vladimir Popović, head of the Office for Professional Standards and Internal Control of the Border Police of BiH, Janjko Knežević, inspector of Internal Control, and Viktorija Damjanović, president of the Disciplinary Commission of the Border Police of BiH. They are accused of having, by prior agreement on May 19, 2016, jointly dropped disciplinary proceedings against Semir Pašanbegović, head of the Central Investigation Office of the Border Police of BiH. Pašanbegović had a traffic accident on the Sarajevo - Zenica road last July while driving an official vehicle. The damage to the Border Police of BiH vehicle was estimated at as much as 23,500 KM.

Janjko Knežević, "with the undoubtedly prior approval of Chief Popović, withdrew the previously submitted request for initiating disciplinary responsibility." This was justified by Pašanbegović's prior acquittal before the Municipal Court in Kakanj. Since only one car was involved in this accident, the one driven by Pašanbegović, the legal and factual dilemma remains as to who is responsible for the accident and the damage caused.

Based on any legal grounds, Pašanbegović could not have been acquitted of guilt. Just as before the court in Kakanj, Pašanbegović was also acquitted before the Disciplinary Commission of the Border Police of BiH.

The Rulebook on Disciplinary Responsibility of Police Officers in BiH, Article 2, states that "acquittal from criminal or misdemeanor responsibility of a police officer does not simultaneously imply acquittal from disciplinary responsibility, if the commission of a criminal offense or misdemeanor also constitutes a violation of official duty."

The Office for Professional Standards, headed by Vladimir Popović, did nothing of what it was required to do, so the enormous material damage to the vehicle was charged to the Border Police of BiH, or rather the state.

On several occasions, Border Police officers have caused serious accidents with official Border Police vehicles, and Vladimir Popović himself had an accident with an official car.

Recently, the Deputy Director of the Border Police, Zijad Srabović, also had a traffic accident with an official car. All of this would have remained among these suspicious decisions and yet another illegal and harmful action would have been covered up, had it not been, as we learn, for the reaction of the Chief Inspector of the Border Police, Svevlad Hofman, who filed this criminal complaint against such actions.

The amnesty of Pašanbegović, yet another high-ranking Border Police official, only confirmed suspicions of a totally arrogant attitude towards the property of this state.

At the last session of the Defense and Security Commission, held on October 26, 2016, member of the state parliament Šemsudin Mehmedović warned that high-ranking police officers are being unjustifiably amnestied from disciplinary prosecution: "It is inhumane and unfair that an ordinary police officer pays out of his own pocket if he damages, for example, a rearview mirror, while managers wreck a car and the Border Police of BiH pays for it," said Mehmedović, Patria reports.