Police Officers' Appeals Board has its hands full: High-ranking SIPA officials are reluctant to retire!

The Police Officers' Appeals Board, whose mandate expires on December 16th, will hold a session today, and possibly another by next Tuesday, to resolve pending appeals before a new Board is appointed.

Although the appointment decision has been ready for several weeks, due to other points of disagreement and the rejection of the agenda at the BiH Council of Ministers session, the appointment of the new composition of the Board, which decides on all appeals of police officers at the state level, is also questionable.

The still-current Police Officers' Appeals Board has received two appeals from high-ranking SIPA officials, Suad Hasanović (Head of KIO) and Damir Muhedinović (Head of RK Tuzla), against the retirement decision. Both are scheduled to retire at the beginning of 2026. Incidentally, Hasanović is one of the closest associates of the illegal director Darko Ćulum, whose daughter is also employed at SIPA. While Ćulum was at the MUP RS after leaving SIPA, Hasanović was one of the authorized persons to manage the agency and maintained regular contact with Ćulum.

At the same time, several deputies from the "Trojka" coalition (Predrag Kojović, Jasmin Imamović, and Nihad Omerović) have initiated urgent amendments to the Law on Police Officers of BiH and the Law on Salaries and Allowances in BiH institutions, and will propose them at the session on December 12th.

Amendments to both of these laws would benefit precisely the high-ranking personnel in all three police agencies, extending their working lives until the age of 60.

The urgency of the proposers and their principals is also evident in the fact that these amendments were sent for procedure without consultations with the unions. The initial proposal to extend the working life of a police officer to 65 years was quickly replaced by another proposal to extend it to 60 years of age. However, even these amendments do not have the consent of the unions.

According to Patria's information, these three proposers sought support from other deputies to sign the proposal for urgent amendments, but several deputies refused. And how well the proposers understand the subject matter is shown by the fact that they were asking in the corridors of Parliament "what ranks exist in police agencies." And I responsibly state that none of the three proposers would be able to list all the ranks in police agencies without looking at a paper.

The SIPA Trade Union has already sent a letter to all caucuses in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH to reject this proposal and to oblige the Council of Ministers of BiH to submit amendments to the Law on Police Officers within 60 days. Given that there was already a law in 2022 that was harmonized with the unions, it is time for the Deputy Minister of Security, Ivica Bošnjak, to pull it out of the drawer. Of course, if the intention is truly to give all police officers the same rights, not just those close to the directors.

The flawed amendments to coefficients, also proposed by the same deputies from the "Trojka" parties, show the same pattern, which is to benefit those with higher ranks whose salaries will increase ten times more than those of police officers, senior police officers, and sergeants.

The Police Officers' Appeals Board now has an important task. Only the Board is competent to make decisions on appeals filed by police officers against decisions made by BiH police bodies regarding the status of a police officer or in cases of omission by a police body to make a decision regarding the status of a police officer, such as promotions, disciplinary proceedings...

The Police Officers' Appeals Board decides on an appeal within 30 days of receiving the appeal, except for an appeal against a suspension decision, which it decides on within three days.

The decisions of the Police Officers' Appeals Board are final and must be executed without delay, although they may be subject to judicial review in accordance with the laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and are delivered within eight days of their adoption.

A. Vrabac