Will the new Government appoint the FUP Director?

By: A. Varatanović

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The election of the Director of the Federal Police Administration has been a current topic for the past few months since the former director Dragan Lukač resigned. After the Independent Board conducted interviews with seven candidates who applied for the top position in that police agency, the top-ranked candidate is Zoran Galić, director of the BiH Border Police. He is followed by Milan Galić, current police commissioner of the West Herzegovina Canton, and then Ensad Korman, deputy director of the FUP.

As the Patria agency has learned, the highest number of points for Zoran and Milan Galić were given by board members Sead Bardak, Zdenko Kovač, Mirko Milićević, and Elfada Gutić, while the remaining board members Amar Hadžiomerović and Enes Bezdrob gave the highest number of points to Ensad Korman and Milan Galić, followed by Zoran Čegar and Ljuban Frljić. Branimir Orašanin did not attend the Independent Board session due to a death in the family.

Zoran Galić has been linked to a number of scandals in recent years, but that did not prevent him from applying for the top FUP position or from receiving the highest number of points!? The position of FUP director is also of interest to Dragan Čović, president of the HDZ BiH, as evidenced by the submitted candidacies. The media have reported that most of the candidates are close to that political party. The first FUP director for two terms was Zlatko Miletić, after whom Dragan Lukač also served two terms as head of the FUP.

Although it was expected that the FUP director would be a Croat, given that the Minister of Internal Affairs is a Bosniak, it is likely that the director of this police agency will not be appointed by the government in a technical mandate. The most recent sessions of the FBiH Government have been marked by controversial appointments.

The list of the most successful candidates will be forwarded to the Minister of Internal Affairs Aljoša Čampare, who could keep it for himself for several more months. In fact, if the Minister of Internal Affairs in the next FBiH Government were a Croat, then a Bosniak would be chosen as the FUP director.