Amendments to the Rules of Procedure enter into force: Decision on the competition for the Head of the Special Department, prosecutors and judges at the next HJPC session

(Patria) - The next session of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) is scheduled for November 6 and 7. The agenda has not yet been published on the HJPC website, but a decision is expected regarding the announcement of a repeated competition for the Deputy Chief Federal Prosecutor, i.e., the Head of the Special Department of the Federal Prosecutor's Office for the Suppression of Corruption, Organized and Inter-Cantonal Crime, nine prosecutors of the Special Department, and ten judges of the Special Department of the Supreme Court of the FBiH. Amendments to the HJPC Rules of Procedure were published in the Official Gazette of BiH on Friday, October 25, and will enter into force on the eighth day after publication.

Although the previous competition was concluded, the HJPC, with the signal and approval of the US Embassy, canceled the competition for all positions.

In the meantime, the HJPC Rules of Procedure have also been amended, allowing candidates who are deputy chief prosecutors to apply, even if they have not spent five years in that position, with a period of continuous work as a judicial officer being sufficient.

This Special Department is expected to start operating by the end of December, but given the repeated procedures, competitions for the necessary staff, and the upcoming holidays, it is difficult to expect this deadline to be met.

The premises where the Special Department will be located have been leased by the Government of the FBiH, and since the beginning of October, 26,000 KM per month has been paid. The contract is signed for five years.

The competition procedure for filling the positions of civil servants in the Federal Prosecutor's Office of the FBiH is underway.

Nine legal expert advisors, three investigator expert advisors, three economist expert advisors, one psychologist, and one associate expert for general and legal affairs and public procurement, as well as an associate expert for cabinet affairs are sought.

Regarding police support, it is foreseen that the Federal Police Administration will be available to the Special Department of the Federal Prosecutor's Office.

What is indicative is that the still non-existent Special Department (Poskok) was also addressed in the report of the High Representative Christian Schmidt to the UN Security Council.

"While the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a decision on the premises where a special department could operate at an urgent session on October 2, the Federal Ministry of Justice, led by the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), announced its intention to amend the law in a way that would weaken the special departments, by reducing the scope of crime that these departments should deal with, especially when it comes to corruption offenses in the canton. This would prevent the special departments from addressing a significant potential source of corrupt practices," Schmidt stated.