Most citizen complaints still related to corruption in employment

More than 1000 citizens contacted Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) in 2016 via the free corruption reporting hotline 0800 55555 and received legal advice, and TI BiH acted in more than 200 cases of various irregularities based on citizen reports, it was announced from TI BiH, writes Patria.

For years, the largest number of reported cases (40%) relates to the public administration sector, followed by reports related to the education and judiciary sectors.

Citizens most often report irregularities and corrupt practices in the employment process, which accounts for more than half of the total reports. Reports related to employment processes mainly concern complaints about how the tender procedure was conducted, lack of transparency regarding the tender procedure, as well as abuse of discretionary powers by managers.

Precisely because of this trend, TI BiH has also launched initiatives to improve employment procedures in public administration at various levels of government, as well as in the education sector. Also, by acting on citizen reports, TI BiH has managed to annul some controversial employment cases.

The most recent example of this kind is the annulment of Sanja Radojičić's employment contract in Elektroprenos BiH, where TI BiH determined that the provisions of the Law on Labor in BiH Institutions were violated, and upon TI BiH's initiative, the administrative inspector ordered Elektroprenos to rectify the irregularities, after which Elektroprenos annulled Radojičić's contract for the position of director's advisor.

As part of activities to build judicial and institutional practice in the area of access to information, TI BiH initiated as many as 58 lawsuits against institutions in 2016 for violating the Law on Free Access to Information. The largest number of these lawsuits were filed against public companies that refused to provide public procurement contracts and lists of employees that TI BiH requested as part of research on the transparency of public companies.

In 2016, a total of 13 judgments were made in favor of TI BiH in administrative disputes, which TI BiH had initiated in previous years also due to the incorrect application and violation of the Law on Free Access to Information. TI BiH won a total of 3 lawsuits for failure to provide data on the situation in the banking sector in Republika Srpska, which has been under increased public scrutiny since the closure of Bobar banka, and the Banking Agency has never publicly explained its work.

TI BiH will continue to provide free legal assistance to citizens regarding all irregularities, violated rights, or cases of corruption, and invites citizens to contact the TI BiH Free Legal Aid Center via the free hotline 0800 55555 if they have information about cases of corruption or if they need legal advice.