Corruption Perception Index: BiH devastated by corruption, criticism also directed at judiciary

(Patria) - Bosnia and Herzegovina has once again regressed in this year's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) survey published by Transparency International (TI) and occupies by far the lowest place in the region and the third worst place in Europe when it comes to the state of corruption in the country. Only Russia and Ukraine achieved worse results than BiH, which with a score of 34 on a scale of 0 to 100, falls among the countries where the state of corruption is worsening the most.

While numerous countries in the region are moving forward, BiH has fallen by as much as 8 index points since 2012 and, along with Turkey, is highlighted in this year's global TI report as an example of the biggest decline compared to 2012 in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. BiH records the worst trend of all surrounding countries, which is best illustrated by the example of Kosovo, which progressed from a score of 34 in 2012 to 41 index points in 2022, while BiH fell from 45 to 34 points in the same ten years.

Key findings for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region state that Western Balkan countries cannot curb organized crime due to the deterioration of the rule of law and a captured judiciary. It is particularly emphasized that BiH is at a historical low, and that ethnic divisions hinder the democratic institutions needed to fight corruption, which was particularly evident in the BiH Prosecutor's Office, for which it is stated that there are serious doubts about its ability to prosecute corruption, and that the appointment of the new Chief Prosecutor of BiH passed in a very flawed procedure in which three of the four initial candidates either withdrew or were eliminated. Numerous corruption scandals, resignations, and the very manner of electing the chief prosecutor have seriously called into question the integrity of the Prosecutor's Office, it is stated in the regional statement.

Due to this situation in the judiciary, a number of important organized crime and corruption cases have not been prosecuted for years, including those involving high-ranking officials. Only one of the latest examples is the trial of those responsible for the crime in Bobar banka, worth over 100 million KM, which, after a years-long judicial farce, ended with the acquittal of one of the main accused in this case, and numerous other corruption affairs had a similar outcome.

It should also be noted that the holding of the General Elections in 2022 was accompanied by a series of scandals involving vote theft, trading in election committees, and abuse of public resources. This problem has not been resolved even by the imposition of changes to the Election Law by the High Representative, who, through his actions, has only further deepened the political crisis and has not resolved the problem of complete government blockade, which continues to act primarily as an instrument of political parties to strengthen their control over all processes in the country. Assessing the Index findings, the Chairman of the Steering Board of TI BiH, Srđan Blagovčanin, stated:

“Not only is there no strategy, policy, or activity by state institutions to prevent corruption, but state institutions, completely captured by political control, focus their activities almost entirely on dealing with corruption. Corruption has unfortunately become the primary reason for the existence of institutions. The complete symbiosis of organized crime and state institutions poses a particular danger to the country, which will lead to further destabilization of the country and the erosion of security.”

TI's report this year emphasizes that corruption has led to serious consequences for global peace as it causes a decline in democracy and the strengthening of authoritarian leaders, and peace and stability are threatened in countries with lower indices. These tendencies have been present in BiH for years, and as stated in the TI report, “an additional reason for concern is the leader of Republika Srpska and his recent mention of a law criminalizing defamation could be used to silence independent critics”.

In the past year, BiH received candidate status for membership in the European Union, but this happened without the implementation of essential reforms from the 14 priorities, and the poor CPI results in Bosnia and Herzegovina were expected primarily due to the lack of key reforms such as amendments to the Election Law and the Law on Financing of Political Parties, the Law on Conflict of Interest, protection of corruption whistleblowers, the HJPC, and particularly concerning are the attempts to adopt laws under the guise of reforms that are worse than the existing ones.

Urgent action to prevent the further decline of the country is imposed as a priority without which it is impossible to expect the initiation of important reform processes. TI BiH, in cooperation with international and domestic experts, has prepared a proposal for the Good Governance Agenda 2025, thus offering an innovative approach to governance challenges in the country, caused by the dominant capture of the state by ethno-national elites. The agenda presents a set of measures to combat corruption beyond the typical and conventional, which could potentially free these efforts from the obstruction of political elites. Some of the measures relate to: conducting systemic functional audits of the public sector to optimize it, centralizing public procurement, and improving the integrity of the electoral process and political parties.