Competition for hiring 88 police officers in FUP will not be annulled, affected candidates will go to court

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – The competition for hiring 88 cadets (80 police officers and 8 junior inspectors) in the Federal Police Administration will likely not be annulled despite irregularities reported to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, the Prosecutor's Office of KS, and the Independent Board of the FBiH Parliament by the Federal Minister of Internal Affairs Aljoša Čampara.

After the decision on successful candidates was published, candidate complaints followed. Several complaints were filed for the same reason. Although they successfully passed all tests and procedures, they were rejected because at the time of employment in 2022, after training, they would be 35 years or older!

It should also be recalled that in the 2017 competition, the then FUP director Dragan Lukač, instead of the most successful candidates, placed candidates who did not meet the requirements on the list for the Special Police Unit, but they were of a different nationality. Likewise, one of the candidates, I.M., was 35 years old at the time and was hired by FUP.

The actions of the Federal Police Administration and the "legal interpretation of the candidates' age at the time of employment" are arbitrary. As confirmed to Patria from multiple sources, the Federal Police Administration could not provide such a legal interpretation, but should have followed the date of the competition, which was announced in May 2020, when the rejected/affected candidates were under 35 years old, and still are not 35 years old today.

As Patria learns, some of the affected candidates will go to the KS Prosecutor's Office today to give their testimony about the competition procedure, and to explain what they know about the removal of certain candidates and the addition of others who performed much worse after testing.

Čampara also reported the acting director of FUP, Ensad Korman, who signed the decision on the selection of candidates for employment in FUP on October 15. In his letter to Korman, Minister Čampara also requested certain clarifications regarding the competition:

“I also ask you to inform me whether it is true that you removed candidates from the list of successful candidates who, during the competition procedure, which lasted almost two years – however unbelievable that may sound – turned 35, even though they were under 35 at the time of applying for the competition. I would appreciate it if you could offer me a logical explanation as to why the content of the competition was not more precise, or why more detailed explanations or restrictions were not provided that would potentially prevent deviations, double interpretations, and susceptibility to manipulation after the competition procedure was completed.”

Furthermore, the process with candidate appeals is still not completed, but several candidates have announced to Patria that they will initiate court proceedings to ensure justice is served.