New Tenders for Arnel Isak's Family Company – TI BiH Sought Response from the Ethics Committee of the FBiH Parliament

(Patria) - The company DHD Zenica, owned by the wife of federal representative Arnel Isak, has continued to win contracts through public tenders, despite this being explicitly prohibited by the still-valid Law on Conflict of Interest in Government Institutions of the FBiH.

Because of this, Transparency International in BiH has requested a response from the Ethics Committee of the FBiH Parliament, as the Code of Ethics requires representatives to step down from their position in the event of a conflict of interest or incompatibility of functions under the current Law. This committee has the authority to impose certain sanctions, and it is known that the competent body for determining conflicts of interest in the FBiH has not existed since 2013.

The latest in a series of tenders won by this family company is worth around 55,000 BAM and, according to the Fokus portal, concerns the successive procurement of fuel for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Zenica-Doboj Canton.

In addition, last year this company also concluded a framework agreement for the procurement of fuel, oils and lubricants with the Institute for Health and Food Safety Zenica, worth around 93,000 BAM (excluding VAT). There is also a tender from JP "Grijanje" Zenica for nearly 26,000 BAM, as well as a contract for JP for the Management of Sports Facilities Zenica worth nearly 11,000 BAM.



The company had no revenue in 2023, but last year it reported a turnover of 2.5 million BAM and a profit of over 84,000 BAM in its report.




TI BiH has previously warned about conflicts of interest, as companies owned by the family of Rama and Arnel Isak have, since their entry into government, secured significant contracts from government institutions in the FBiH.

The company Condor d.o.o. Zenica, which was previously owned by the wife of the FBiH Minister of Internal Affairs Rama Isak, was earlier part of a consortium that won a tender from Elektroprivreda BiH worth nearly 14 million BAM.

Following pressure from the public and the international community, a change in the ownership structure occurred, so that since November last year the company has been owned by Arnesa Memić.

The case of the Isak family is a blatant example of open violation of the Law and abuse of the legal vacuum created in 2013, when the authority to determine conflicts of interest was taken away from the CEC. Since then, for 12 years, there has been no competent body in this entity to determine conflicts of interest, and the authorities have avoided adopting a new law through numerous obstructions.

In May 2023, the current FBiH Government withdrew important anti-corruption laws from the parliamentary procedure "for revision", including the Draft Law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest. TI BiH warned at the time that valuable time would be lost because the withdrawn proposal had already passed certain procedures and consultations.

The authorities never reintroduced the new law into the procedure, despite their declarative commitment to fighting corruption and fulfilling priorities on the European path, which explicitly requires the improvement of laws regulating this area at all levels. Because of this, we have open examples of violations of the law on conflict of interest, where family companies of public officials smoothly obtain lucrative contracts.

(Transparentno.ba)