CHOVIĆ'S ANNOUNCEMENTS HDZ wants the position of FUP Director: The Independent Board that should conduct the procedure does not exist!

By Amra Vrabac

At yesterday's coffee with journalists, the president of HDZ BiH Dragan Čović also spoke about the appointment of the Director of the Federal Police Administration and announced that it should be on the agenda in the seventh or eighth month. However, for the FBiH Government to even consider appointing the FUP Director, it is necessary to receive a list of candidates from the Federal Minister of Internal Affairs, which the minister receives from the Independent Board.

However, the Independent Board has not existed since August 2022, and the competition for new members has never been announced. The competition procedure is conducted by the Joint Working Group of the Commission for Election and Appointment of both houses of the FBiH Parliament, which has never been constituted, even though members from both houses were elected back in January 2023. Three members are elected from each house, and at the last session of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament, there was a change of one member proposed by this house. However, regardless of this, there is no progress regarding the announcement of the competition for the members of the Independent Board.

The Independent Board of the FBiH Parliament announces and conducts the competition procedure for the election of the Director and Deputy Director of the Federal Police Administration. FUP has been without an elected director since Dragan Lukač retired. The previous convocation of the Independent Board conducted several competition procedures, but the director was never appointed. In the meantime, the mandate of the Deputy Director of FUP has also expired, and he was appointed to a position in another police agency.

On May 17, 2023, the FBiH Government, led by Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić, authorized Vahidin Munjić to lead FUP for a period of three months. Then, the FBiH Government extended Munjić's acting mandate, even after he was detained as part of the Black Tie 2 operation along with Mustafa Selmanović, commander of the Special Police Unit, and three FUP police officers. They are still included in the investigation, and the FBiH Government kept Munjić in his position.

The desire of HDZ and Dragan Čović to obtain the top position in FUP has been known for years. The Law on Internal Affairs of FBiH specifies the election of the director in such a way that the minister and the director cannot be from the same constituent nation.

Previous attempts to appoint Zoran Galić or Svevlad Hoffmann as FUP Director have failed.

In addition to the blocked election of the FUP Director and Deputy Director, due to the non-existence of the Independent Board, FUP is also without parliamentary oversight, which raises numerous questions about the transparency and legality of the work of this important police agency.

According to the Law on Internal Affairs of FBiH, the Independent Board announces and conducts a public competition for the appointment of the police director; selects and proposes a list of candidates for the election of the police director to the FBiH Government, which it submits through the minister; monitors the work of the police director and reports to the FBiH Parliament, the FBiH Government, and the minister on the work of the police director; proposes the dismissal of the police director to the FBiH Government in accordance with the Law on Internal Affairs of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; conducts the first-instance disciplinary proceedings against the police director and imposes disciplinary sanctions; receives, considers, and acts on complaints filed regarding the work of the police director and informs the minister and the FBiH Government about them; adopts its rules of procedure.

There is still a long way to go until the election of the FUP Director, and how much the parties of the 'trojka' will listen to Dragan Čović's wishes will be shown in the next election of the acting FUP Director.