Political leaders would change heads of police agencies tomorrow, but laws prevent them

By Amra Vrabac

The issue of the heads of three state police agencies and OSA is a current topic among the coalition partners who will form the state government of SNSD, HDZ, and parties gathered around the SDP, the so-called "trojka".

Although the distribution and agreement on positions that should be absolutely independent of political parties were made among these partners last week, it is certain that there will be a change in only one part of the personnel.

Some political leaders, in a hurry to "sweep away" the personnel of the previous government, announced at the first session of the new Council of Ministers of BiH the dismissal of directors and deputies whose mandates have expired and the appointment of acting officials.

However, if they had read any law regulating the appointment of police agency heads, they would know that the position of acting official is not foreseen. There have been cases where directors were dismissed, as in the case of Goran Zubac (dismissed director of SIPA), but the deputy performed the duties of the director by the authorization of the Council of Ministers of BiH.

Although the mandates of the heads of DKPT (director and two deputies), GP BiH (director and deputy), and the deputy director of SIPA have expired, they will remain in their positions until the dismissal and appointment of new directors and deputies.

The tender procedure was completed in July, and the ranking lists submitted by the Independent Board of the BiH Parliament to the Ministry of Security of BiH, which delegates appointments to the Council of Ministers of BiH, have not yet been considered.

Given the agreement reached among the coalition partners and the desire to appoint other personnel, it is necessary to announce a new tender, at least for certain positions on which the current political partners do not have consensus.

However, for this to happen, the Council of Ministers of BiH must still decide on the submitted ranking lists, accepting or rejecting the candidates.

According to information available to Patria, the appointment of certain personnel is being considered, such as the deputy director of SIPA, who should be Zoran Galić, two deputy directors of DKPT, one Croat and one Serb, the director of GP BiH, who should be Mirko Kuprešaković, while the tender should be repeated for the director of DKPT and the deputy director of GP BiH.

However, until the new Council of Ministers of BiH is formed, no one can predict the outcome of the situation.