Čolo (SDA): Why should BiH have a stricter conflict of interest law than Croatia!

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Representatives in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina Saša Magazinović, Damir Arnaut and Jasmin Emrić have taken on the role of proposers for the Draft Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thus placing this legal solution into regular parliamentary procedure.

This is a law that was drafted by members of the BiH Parliament at the end of the previous term with the help of Transparency International BiH, the OSCE and the EU Delegation.

Jasmin Emrić said that the process of adopting this important law has been ongoing for more than two years.

"As one of the proposers of this Law, I must say that it significantly improves conflict of interest regulations. The new text stipulates that a person holding a political office cannot be appointed as a member of the commission. It is completely depoliticized, as a member cannot be a party member nor have been one in the last five years," said Emrić, adding that with a little political will, this law could have been adopted in the previous convocation of the PSBiH.

The law envisages expanding the circle of persons to whom the law applies so that all holders of public functions have equal treatment, introducing precise rules limiting the holding of multiple functions, and clear rules on performing functions, engagements and business activities of public function holders even after the termination of their function.

Consolidating and harmonizing regulations on asset declarations and conflict of interest, clearly defining competencies regarding the collection, publication and control by the Commission implementing the law, introducing accessibility and the obligation to submit asset declarations on an annual basis, as well as establishing a system for verifying the accuracy of data in reports and publishing a register of function holders and their assets, expanding the range and types of sanctions and introducing new mechanisms, such as annulment of an act resulting from a conflict of interest situation, are some of the important changes provided for by this law.

Nikola Lovrinović (HDZ) said he regrets that this law did not come from the Council of Ministers, and that the proposed version has many shortcomings that cannot be corrected even in the amendment phase. Lovrinović's discussion is interesting. Lovrinović proposed a conclusion that the Council of Ministers of BiH should submit a Draft Law on Conflict of Interest and that in its drafting it should take today's proposal into account.

"I propose that we do not vote on this proposal so that it can be linked with other laws," said Lovrinović.

Saša Magazinović said that a proposal cannot be made not to vote on a draft law.

"We have already obligated the Council of Ministers and waited. It is possible that the problem is who the proposer is. There is a lot of vanity here, so laws signed by a larger number of clubs are passed. This is not a law of just three proposers," said Magazinović.

Alma Čolo (SDA) said that it is fashionable today to propose laws, to ask hundreds of questions, and then inquire who earned how much, how much was paid for telephone bills.

"This is just a digression for those representatives who propose laws concerning criminal law, conflict of interest... I made a parallel with Croatia. They are in the EU and I do not think we should have a stricter law. The Croatian law is milder. They do not have to submit a financial report every year, while we have to do it twice a year," says Čolo.

She added that the Croats deleted sanctions for representatives.

"Why should we impose these sanctions," said Čolo.

We recall, for example, the Commission for Decision on Conflict of Interest in Institutions of BiH was supposed to rule on a complaint against then-member of the BiH Presidency Dragan Čović (HDZ) back in February 2018, but a ruling was never made due to lack of quorum.

The complaint against Čović was filed due to conflict of interest because the Croatian National Assembly (HNS), a political non-governmental association he leads, received budget money. Documents obtained last year by the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN) show that for organizing the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) in 2017, the HNS received a total of 16,750 KM from the budgets of the West Herzegovina Canton, Canton 10 and Posavina Canton. The money was paid from the cantonal budget reserves intended for emergency and unforeseen situations such as floods, earthquakes or fires.

The Law on Conflict of Interest in Institutions of BiH prohibits elected officials from holding responsible positions in non-governmental organizations if they are financed from the budget in amounts exceeding 10,000 KM annually.