Trojka's False Concern for Bosniaks: Rushing to Extend Pensioners' Working Lives in the Police, but Not Solving Other Problems

By: Amra Vrabac

The Collegium of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament will determine the competent committee today to consider the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Police Officers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, proposed by MPs from the Trojka parties Nihad Omerović (NIP), Jasmin Imamović (SDP BiH), and Predrag Kojović (Naša stranka), which did not receive support for either an urgent or abbreviated procedure at the session of this House on December 12, and will therefore proceed through the regular procedure.

At that session, a large number of MPs from both the government and the opposition participated in the discussion on urgency, although the content of the law was also discussed to some extent. They had objections to the text of the law, provisions that would benefit high-ranking police officers in state agencies by extending their working lives, while police officers in lower ranks would essentially gain nothing from the adoption of the law amendments.

Perhaps MP Jasmin Emrić (NES) explained it most vividly, pointing out that a police officer has no motivation to work until the age of 60 when their salary and pension after 40 years of service would not differ significantly. In this context, the amendments to the Law on Salaries and Allowances in BiH Institutions, proposed by the same proponents and with proposed coefficients, are also problematic.

Regarding the Law on Police Officers, the unions of all three police agencies (SIPA, GP BiH, and DKPT) have taken the position that the proposed amendments are unacceptable. The proponents made a correction from the original proposal from 65 to 60 years of age, but this is not acceptable to the unions and police officers.

The SIPA Union has held consultations within its membership in recent days, and on Friday, they issued a statement stating that they had asked the proponents to lower the age limit to 55 years of age, which the proponents refused. A compromise solution should have been 57 years.

“On December 19, 2025, the membership of the SIPA Union, through a survey or at a branch meeting, rejected the Proposal prepared by the Management Board, based on which it was concluded that the SIPA Union remains committed to its earlier request that a comprehensive analysis of the entire Law on Police Officers be carried out and that the complete text be sent to the parliamentary procedure as soon as possible.”

Through consultations, the SIPA Union raised the issue of sliding ranks, faster promotions, and coefficients for pension calculation, but the proponents rejected such amendments.

What did the Defense and Security Committee do?

The sudden concern of the three proponents of the law amendments was presented as a “concern for the mass retirement of police officers, especially Bosniaks.” However, Imamović is also the chairman of the Joint Committee for Defense and Security. For more than two and a half years, he has not once invited the unions to a session to hear firsthand about the problems of police officers. Imamović has never responded to the letter from the SIPA Union from May of this year, when institutional protection was requested for seven SIPA police officers charged with criminal offenses by the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs for acting in accordance with their authorities and the Law on SIPA when they attempted to serve an arrest warrant to Milorad Dodik in Lukavica, an action that was prevented by members of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The same Committee did not show much interest in the situation in SIPA after Darko Ćulum resigned on March 18, authorized several individuals to manage SIPA, and then suddenly returned on July 14.

If Imamović, Omerović, and Kojović were so concerned about the situation in the three state agencies, why were the directors responsible for staffing not invited to the Committee sessions? The Committee, the Ministry of Security of BiH, and the Council of Ministers of BiH should have known the situation in the police agencies, and it is the Council of Ministers that ultimately approves the cadet recruitment plan for these agencies.

Why did Imamović, as chairman of the Committee or as a parliamentarian, not request official data on the projection of retirements and recruitment in these three state agencies, but the proponents presented only retirement data, which was immediately refuted and does not correspond to the actual situation.

Although the directors of these agencies were not involved in the entire affair, the State Investigation and Protection Agency did issue a statement on Friday.

SIPA currently has 720 employees, of which 519 are police officers, from the rank of police officer to chief general police inspector. Of these, 38 are independent inspectors, including 18 Bosniaks, 12 Serbs, and eight Croats, who can fill vacant positions in a very short time, in the same way and according to the procedures that were followed in the previous promotion period, as the current retirees were independent inspectors when the then chief inspectors met the retirement criteria and when they retired.

Given that the proponents from Trojka did not provide data on employment in SIPA, from 2020 to 2025, 144 police officers were hired through announced and conducted external advertisements for the rank of junior inspector and police officer. In 2025, a competition was held, and 28 police officers were hired in the rank of police officer and junior inspector, and the recruitment of young staff continues in 2026.
SIPA concludes that the termination of employment due to retirement and other reasons in accordance with the law will not affect the functionality of the Agency.

“We believe that any amendment to any law that directly relates to the Agency, without consulting the Agency, is not good, because it mostly involves manipulation with inaccurate data and proposes legal solutions that will negatively affect the functioning of the Agency. Thus, the adoption of legal solutions that would allow employees to remain employed for years after meeting the retirement criteria, and for such a stay to depend solely on the employee’s will, would create legal uncertainty, unequal and unfair treatment, prevent career advancement, and a number of other negative consequences. In this way, the recruitment of new police officers would be hindered because job vacancies in the initial ranks would not become available,” stated SIPA, which shows the unseriousness of the proponents who approached these amendments to the law superficially.

Trojka Does Not Want Young People in the Police

With such actions, the Trojka MPs have also sent a message to young people who wanted to become police officers that the system does not need them because it needs “certain” pensioners.

Although SIPA has not provided data on how many police officers will retire during 2026, according to Patria's information, there are a total of 56 officers, ten of whom do not have their full pension contributions paid, making their retirement questionable. Therefore, it is not about hundreds of jobs but about a number that can be easily replaced through regular recruitment.

The last session of the Joint Committee for Defense and Security of BiH was held on November 26, at which the delegate initiative of Kemal Ademović was considered, requesting the Council of Ministers of BiH, and especially the Ministry of Security of BiH, to urgently initiate procedures for expanding the capacity of the Agency for Education and Professional Training of Personnel AEPTM for at least 100 participants within three months from the adoption of this initiative. Although Ademović has repeatedly tried over the past two years to ensure the expansion of this Agency’s capacity, it has not yet happened, nor has the Council of Ministers of BiH seriously addressed this issue or the situation in the three state agencies.

Responsibility for this lies with the Deputy Minister of Security Ivica Bošnjak, who has been heading the Ministry for the entire year 2025, and the directors of SIPA, DKPT, and the Border Police of BiH, where the problem of missing police officers is most pronounced.

By adopting half-measures that will not have an effect on promotions, career advancement, or the recruitment of new police officers, nothing will be achieved. Especially since the amendments do not oblige police officers to remain employed but to voluntarily submit a request to their supervisor.

However, the Council of Ministers of BiH's lack of understanding of police work is also shown by the fact that at the session on December 16, they did not adopt the decision on appointing the Appeals Committee for Police Officers, which makes final decisions on appeals from police officers. Those more informed claim that Trojka will not support the appointment of the Committee until the amendments to the Law on Police Officers proposed by the Trojka MPs are adopted. The greatest damage is suffered by the police officers themselves, who may soon find themselves protesting in front of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly building.