Independent Board Still Without Decision on Annulment of FUP Director Competition, Seeks OHR Opinion

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Independent Board of the Parliament of FBiH held a session today, but no conclusion was reached regarding the competition for the election of the Director of the Federal Police Administration.

Mirko Milićević, the president of the Independent Board, told Patria that today, by a majority vote, they decided to seek consultation on this process from the Office of the High Representative (OHR).

"We will seek some form of consultation with the OHR to see if we can resolve this situation. We will ask for their response as soon as possible," said Milićević.

Otherwise, out of the six members present at today's session, 4 members voted for the Independent Board to contact the OHR, while two members were against.

When asked if the letter from the Federal Minister of Internal Affairs Aljoša Čampara regarding irregularities in the competition for the admission of 88 cadets to the FUP was also considered at today's session, Milićević stated that certain documentation arrived earlier, and also before today's session, and that this issue will be considered at the next session.

"We did not make any conclusions today, and we will consider this matter at future sessions," said the president of the Independent Board.

The saga with the competition for the election of the Director of the Federal Police Administration has been ongoing for several months, despite it being a competition from 2019. The appointment of the director was halted from June 2019 to July 2021, when the FBiH Government finally voted on all names from the ranking list submitted by the Independent Board. No candidate received support at that time, and the FBiH Government adopted a conclusion recommending that the competition be annulled and a new one announced.

The FBiH Government concluded the procedure by voting on the list of candidates, and now everything is up to the Independent Board of the Parliament of FBiH.

Correspondence between the FMUP-FBiH Government-Independent Board lasted for several months, but instead of a final decision on the competition, the Independent Board decided to seek an opinion from the OHR.

We remind you that in June 2019, the FBiH Government adopted a conclusion to suspend the procedure for appointing the FUP Director until a new FBiH Government was appointed, so that the appointment would not affect the election of the Minister of Internal Affairs of FBiH, as the minister and the director cannot be from the same constituent people. The appointment of a new Government never happened, nor did the appointment of the FUP Director.

The Federal Police Administration has been led by Ensad Korman as acting director for more than two years.

In addition to Zoran Galić, who was first on the list and who sued the FBiH Government for not being appointed, the list also includes Milan Galić, former police commissioner of West Herzegovina Canton, who was reappointed to that position at the end of March 2021 but resigned in October, Ensad Korman, Deputy Director of FUP, Robert Perić, Head of the Southern Field Office and Chief Inspector at the BiH Border Police, Ljuban Frljić, head of a sector of the Police Administration of the MUP of SBK (retired), Mustafa Hujdurović, inspector in FUP, and Zoran Čegar, head of the Uniformed Police Sector of the Federal Police Administration.