STATE SERVICE Director of ADS Anita Markić mostly appoints Croats and Serbs to commissions, one Bosniak out of five members

The Civil Service Agency of BiH conducted more than 50 public competitions during 2023 and 2024, during which 221 people were hired in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina: 88 Serbs, 74 Bosniaks, 54 Croats, four from the 'others' category, and one undeclared.

According to the review that the Patria News Agency had access to, the five-member commissions, which are appointed from the employees of the institution where recruitment is taking place (two members) and three members proposed by the CSA, Bosniaks are most often represented by one member, and very rarely by two commission members. Out of the five commission members, it is evident that even two Bosniaks cannot tip the scales in the competition procedure.

This is also shown by the national structure that the Civil Service Agency of BiH provided in response to a parliamentary question from Jasmin Emrić in January this year. Thus, for the competition procedures in 2024, 530 people were appointed, with the largest number of members being Croats (185), followed by Serbs (179), Bosniaks (163), and three from the 'others' category.

In percentages, this looks like this: 34.91% Croats, 33.77% Serbs, 30.72% Bosniaks, and 0.57% 'Others' constituted the commissions for the recruitment of civil servants and the appointment of senior civil servants.

What is interesting is that a large number of commission members are repeated, meaning that the Agency very often appoints the same people to most commissions, which is evident from the decisions we had access to and which the Agency provided to the representative.

Thus, from September 2023 to the end of May 2025, the most frequently appointed members to commissions for the recruitment of civil servants were Sanja Jokić (ten commissions), Edin Huskić (nine), Jure Zovko, Igor Bevanda, Emina Jahić, Azra Kost (eight commissions), Edin Mukinović, Nemanja Gojković, Saša Žuža, Žana Primorac, Goran Mišković, Sanja Jelić-Širić (seven), Marijana Galić, Dražan Primorac, Irina Krtalić, Ana Rašo, Željko Bogut (six), and so on...

There is no substantial difference in the composition of the commissions during the tenure of the former director Nevenko Akšamija and the current director Anita Markić (HDZ BiH). Bosniaks are minimally represented, so the imbalance of Bosniaks in BiH institutions is not surprising.

When the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH finally held a debate on the national structure of employees at the end of July, more than two months after the request for an urgent session, although duly invited, Director Markić did not appear so as not to have to answer the representatives' questions.

What is even more interesting is that Markić provided an unusual response to a parliamentary question from Šemsudin Mehmedović, asked at the end of June 2025, who requested copies of the decisions on appointing members of the Commissions for the selection of civil servants for public advertisements from September 2023 to May 28, 2025.

"Regarding the response to the parliamentary question asked, we draw attention to Article 171 of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives of the PA BiH, which clearly stipulates that neither the question nor the answer may exceed one standard A-4 size page. Since the answer to the question cannot be provided in accordance with the aforementioned Article of the Rules of Procedure, please adjust the question, i.e., ask it in a way that allows us to provide an answer in the prescribed form," Markić stated in her response at the end of July.

However, in January this year, Markić provided Emrić with a response of more than 60 pages, including all decisions and names of commission members, so it is unclear how she changed her mind in the meantime and is now invoking the Rules of Procedure, unless she was advised to respond that way.

Similarly, when Emrić requested the national structure of employees in BiH institutions, most state institutions provided answers and tables of several pages, and even those that did not provided an explanation of at least two pages.

How is it possible that Markić, in just half a year, responds to the same parliamentary question in two completely different ways, refusing to provide the requested documents even though these are public competitions.

Markić also provided data on the national structure of employees in the Civil Service Agency of BiH in February this year, and did not invoke the Rules of Procedure even then, although the response was several pages long.

Out of 27 employees in the Agency, ten are Serbs, eight are Croats, seven are Bosniaks, and two are from the 'others' category. It seems that correcting the national imbalance at the expense of Bosniaks should start precisely with the CSA and Markić.

(A. Vrabac)