Duraković nowhere to be found, Government silent: What is the purpose of the Agency for Privatisation Audit?

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, hundreds of suspicious privatisations have been carried out, and unfortunately this process continues, as evidenced by the privatisation of the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory, TTU, Krivaja and other companies, Patria writes.

Transparency is decreasing, and workers' problems are piling up, so it is unclear what the Agency for Privatisation Audit is doing, because the role of this Agency is to enable the public to transparently present a complete overview of the privatisation carried out and to contribute to the development of Bosnian society through the establishment of a verification process for privatisation. It is also tasked with identifying irregularities during privatisation, as well as presenting those privatisations that have been successfully implemented.

We remind you that in February 2014, the FBiH Government adopted a Decree on the establishment of the Agency for Privatisation Audit. In fact, the Law on the Audit of Privatisation of State Capital in Economic Companies and Banks was adopted by the Federal Parliament back in June 2012.

Immediately after the adoption of the Decree on the establishment of the Agency in April 2014, the Government appointed Vedad Duraković as Director of the Agency for Privatisation Audit. Apart from the brief information that he is a young expert, the public remains unaware of the fields and positions in which the appointed director gained expertise in the field of auditing.

Especially since he came to this position from the failed company "Olimpic tours" Sarajevo, whose founder is the Railways of the Federation Public Enterprise.

It remains unknown on what basis of competencies the Government made the appointment to such an important position, because we were unable to obtain information on whether a public competition for the position of Director of the Agency for Privatisation Audit was ever announced.

The only thing visible from the Decree adopted by the Government is a provision stating that the director must have at least 5 years of work experience after obtaining a university degree, although it is questionable whether the appointed director met even that formal condition at the time of appointment.

For a year from its establishment, the Agency had only a director as an employee. Today, almost three years after the establishment of the Agency for Privatisation Audit, the public still sees no effects, so the question rightly arises as to what is the purpose of its existence, unless it is to provide cushy jobs for incompetent party cadres.

Interestingly, they rarely make public statements, and Director Duraković is rarely seen anywhere except at sessions of the FBiH Parliament when he needs to submit a work report.

The FBiH Government did not respond to our questions regarding this Agency, and we specifically asked them to tell us precisely what the effects of this Agency's existence are and what they have concretely done so far.

The FBiH Government recently also accepted the report on the work of the Agency for Privatisation Audit in FBiH for the period January-June 2016.