Independent Board next week on competition for SIPA Deputy Director: BiH Council of Ministers has not yet appointed a director

The Independent Board session is scheduled for December 12, where the text of the Public Competition for the selection procedure of candidates for the position of Deputy Director of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) will be adopted. This position has been formally vacant since October 23, when fugitive Zoran Galić was dismissed from the position of Deputy Director at his personal request, after fleeing Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 8 to avoid arrest. The BiH Prosecutor's Office suspects him of abuse of office and receiving gifts while he was the Director of the BiH Border Police.

After the decision on Galić's dismissal was published in the Official Gazette of BiH, the Independent Board held a session and scheduled the next one for December, when the competition for this position will finally be announced.

In addition to this position of Deputy Director, for which well-known candidates close to the HDZ from security structures are interested, the issue of appointing the Director of SIPA has not yet been resolved. Director Darko Ćulum's mandate expired in July, and the Independent Board conducted the procedure for selecting a new director and on September 9 established a ranking list which was sent to the BiH Minister of Security, Nenad Nešić. The top-ranked candidate is Ćulum, the second-ranked is the head of SIPA's Financial Intelligence Department, Ljubiša Pandurević, while the third on the list of successful candidates for the position of SIPA Director is the head of the Doboj Police Administration of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs, Slobodan Radinković.

Although it is the minister's discretionary right to choose a candidate from the list, he decided on the third-ranked Radinković. Nešić, explaining his proposal, stated that the name was agreed upon "within the Serb community and with Milorad Dodik".

Before the session of the BiH Council of Ministers, in mid-September, information emerged from security agencies that Radinković's name was mentioned in a conversation between two members of the criminal milieu in June of this year, precisely as an announcement that he was going to a position in SIPA and that "they will have him even higher", while they would place their man in Doboj who would watch over them. Radinković, responding to journalists' questions about that recording and his connection with those individuals, stated that his candidacy is still active.

"In the past, many members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been connected to that Sky application or whatever it is, I don't know. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has not commented. I am the head of the Doboj Police Administration, which should be enough for anyone intelligent. That's my comment," said Radinković.

Due to this information, ministers from the 'trojka' parties in the BiH Council of Ministers were not prepared to support Nešić's proposal, so that item has never been included on the agenda.

There is no obstacle for Ćulum to continue performing the duties of director until a new director is appointed, which is also permitted by law.

A possible scenario is that ministers of Serb ethnicity (RS) will insist that the appointment of both the Director and Deputy Director of SIPA be resolved as a package. However, if Nešić does not change his proposal, it is difficult to expect the 'trojka' to support Radinković.

Regarding the position of Deputy Director, only one candidate of Croat ethnicity from SIPA meets the requirements, but he is not interested. There is increasing talk about the return of Đuro Knežević, a former deputy for two terms. Knežević is the current Deputy Director of DKPT Enes Karić, and it is certain that he could be one of the candidates for this position.

(A. Vrabac)