HDZ's Place as FUP Director

By: A. Varatanović

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Four applications have been received for the position of Director of the Federal Police Administration by December 31, but it is possible that more will arrive by mail. The Independent Board of the FBiH Parliament has scheduled a session for January 7 to open the received envelopes.

As confirmed for Patria, among the received applications is that of the current Director of the BiH Border Police, Zoran Galić. The current Deputy Directors of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), Đuro Knežević, the Directorate for the Coordination of Police Bodies, Ivica Bošnjak, and the current Police Commissioner of the MUP of West Herzegovina Canton, Milan Galić, have also applied. All four applicants are close to HDZ BiH structures.

To date, a deputy director has not been appointed, although the list of candidates was submitted by the Independent Board to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Aljoša Čampara, at the end of October last year. Three candidates were proposed for the deputy position: Himzo Selimović, Ensad Korman, and Zoran Čegar.

According to the Law, the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Director of FUP cannot be of the same nationality. The new Director of the Federal Police Administration will thus be chosen by the votes of HDZ BiH and SBB ministers, who have ten ministers in the FBiH Government, six from HDZ BiH and four from SBB.

The Director of the Federal Police Administration, Dragan Lukač, announced his withdrawal from that position at the end of January due to health reasons. The Independent Board had previously determined that Lukač had more than 44 years of service as of December 31, 2017, and that he had already lost his status as a police officer at 40. Legally, Lukač could not have been elected Director of FUP for a second term. The FBiH Government, at its session held on December 20, did not accept the information of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, i.e., Minister Aljoša Čampara, which contains a chronology of the actions of the competent authorities related to the status of the Director of the Federal Police Administration, Dragan Lukač, by a majority vote, meaning the FBiH Government did not approve his appointment.

Prime Minister Fadil Novalić issued a decision on October 24, 2018, appointing Lukač as head of FUP, bypassing other members of the FBiH Government. The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Edita Đapo, filed a criminal complaint against Čampara and Novalić at the beginning of 2018 because, as she stated, they had concealed the verdict of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo for a whole year, preventing the Government from potentially filing an appeal.

Dnevni avaz reported at the end of August that the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office had officially opened a case against Dragan Lukač, Director of the Federal Police Administration, and the proceedings relate to violations of the Law on Police Officers of FBiH and the conditions under which he should have been retired back in 2014.

Several reports have been sent to the KS Prosecutor's Office against Lukač for abuse of official position.