Corruption whistleblower Irina Lovrić to mark Women's Day with a protest in front of the BiH Parliament

Instead of with a flower in hand, the first and only female corruption whistleblower in BiH, Irina Lovrić, will greet Women's Day in front of the BiH Parliament building, where her protest against the authorities in BiH will begin at exactly 12 PM, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

Lovrić first reported the director of the Fund for Return of BiH in 2009, and after that, she reported a large number of other government officials for corruption and crime in state institutions in the country. However, from all of it, she only got into her own problems.

Today, this young woman has fallen into a difficult financial situation, which is why she decided to protest in front of the state Parliament precisely on the day when women around the world celebrate their day.

- I reported corruption and crime in good faith back in 2009, and I supplemented my criminal reports and pointed to corruption and crime, not only in the Fund for Return of BiH where I am employed as a technical secretary. By doing so, I tried to prevent the non-transparent spending of budget funds, as well as donations and huge financial resources intended for the return of refugees and displaced persons to BiH – Lovrić wrote on her Facebook profile.

- For years, I participated in all investigations of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), and not only in cases initiated by my criminal reports.

I am one of the first whistleblowers of corruption and organized crime in the BiH civil service and the first protected whistleblower, according to the Law on Protection of Persons Reporting Corruption in Institutions of BiH, and my official status was granted by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of Fight against Corruption. Unfortunately, this only happened in April 2014.

Lovrić says that all these years, while she has been involved in uncovering and reporting corruption, she has not encountered political support from the highest political officials in the country.

- With well-founded warnings about corruption in the institution where I work, which deals with the accommodation of refugees and displaced persons and the implementation of return projects in BiH, I first addressed the Council of Ministers of BiH, as the competent authority, starting from 2009 (Nikola Špirić was the Chairman of the Council, op. a.), but the Council did not respond to any of my submissions, not even negatively.

Things did not change, says Lovrić, even when Vjekoslav Bevanda became the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, who also ignored all her reports of corruption. Bevanda continued to protect corrupt leaders in the highest state institutions, just as his predecessor Špirić had done.

And while the Council of Ministers of BiH ignored all of Lovrić's submissions regarding corruption and bribery in state bodies, millions of KM disappeared from the state treasury, suitable rather than professional people were hired for important positions in power, much documentation was destroyed...

Lovrić will once again point out these problems on March 8, in front of the BiH Parliament building, at exactly 12 PM, writes Patria.