Independent Board of BiH Parliament scheduled for April 15: New postponement or interviews for SIPA Deputy Director candidates

(Patria) - The President of the Independent Board of the BiH Parliament, Enes Obralija, has scheduled a session for April 15, after the one on April 1 was not held due to the absence of members from the Serb people.

If there is no new postponement of attendance at the session, the Independent Board's service will invite candidates for the Deputy Director of SIPA for an interview on April 15.

We remind you that the Independent Board opened applications at the end of January, and six applications were received: Đuro Knežević, Dragan Andrić, Svevlad Hoffman, Mario Pavlinović, Kristijan Suknjov, and Igor Marić.

Knežević has already served two terms as Deputy Director of SIPA, and after his term expired, he was appointed Deputy Director of DKPT in February 2023. He is a cadre close to the HDZ. Instead of Knežević, Zoran Galić was appointed Deputy Director of SIPA at that time. In July 2024, he fled to Croatia to avoid arrest because the BiH Prosecutor's Office suspects him of abuse of office while he was the Director of the BiH Border Police. Croatia refuses to extradite him because he is also a Croatian citizen.

The BiH Council of Ministers finally dismissed him from duty in October 2024, at his own request, as no disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him. The BiH Prosecutor's Office and Chief Prosecutor Milanko Kajganić expressed suspicion that Galić was tipped off about the operation in which SIPA members were involved, and only a small number of people knew about the operation, including Director Darko Ćulum.

Regarding this police agency, the Director of SIPA, Darko Ćulum, has also resigned, but his resignation has not yet been accepted. Ćulum made such a decision after the authorities of the RS entity adopted a series of unconstitutional laws at the end of February this year, prohibiting the work of the Court, Prosecutor's Office, VSTV, and SIPA on the territory of the RS. The BiH Prosecutor's Office is conducting investigative actions due to the criminal offense of an attack on the constitutional order.

The Independent Board has also not initiated proceedings to dismiss Ćulum, although on March 2, he attended a meeting in Banja Luka with Milorad Dodik and Željka Cvijanović, as well as the RS Minister of Internal Affairs, Siniša Karan. On the other hand, on March 7, Ćulum ordered employees of the Banja Luka Regional Office to leave their workplaces, which he later justified as being for March 8.

However, on March 18, Ćulum submitted his resignation to the Independent Board and requested dismissal from the BiH Council of Ministers. But due to the obstruction of ministers from SNSD and demands that only Ćulum be dismissed, leaving SIPA headless in one of the biggest political and security crises, other members of the BiH Council of Ministers did not want to support such a stance.

It should not be forgotten that the appointment of a new Director of SIPA has also been pending since September 2024, and it appears that this competition may ultimately be canceled.

Regardless of some of the actions SIPA has carried out in the last twenty days, this agency has been operating at reduced capacity for the first time since its establishment in 2002.

The members of the NO are: President Enes Obralija, Miše Ćavar, Enes Bezdrob, Nikola Džambas, Muhamed Mujakić, Darko Kremenović, Mate Miletić, and Milan Stanić.