Unions and MPs Against the 'Trojka' Proposal: Ćulum Cannot Decide Who Stays Employed at SIPA

By Amra Vrabac

Next week, the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament will consider two laws from the same proposers, which have not yet gained the agreement of state police agency unions.

MPs Predrag Kojović, Jasmin Imamović, and Nihad Omerović from the 'Trojka' coalition proposed amendments to the Law on Police Officers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as amendments to the Law on Salaries and Allowances in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Regarding the Law on Police Officers, the 'Trojka' MPs proposed extending the working life of police officers to the age of 60. The unions' proposal was a maximum of 55 years, but the 'Trojka' MPs reduced it from the initial 65 to 60 years. What is further problematic is the provision that gives the manager the right to decide on a police officer's request.

Just imagine a situation where, for example, the current director Darko Ćulum decides on the request of a Bosniak police officer who participated in the operation to serve Milorad Dodik with an arrest warrant in April 2025. At that moment, Darko Ćulum was an advisor in the MUP RS, having previously left SIPA at the invitation of Milorad Dodik and the regime that attacked the constitutional order by prohibiting the work of state judicial institutions on the territory of RS, as well as SIPA. And now, they want to give such a person, whom the Council of Ministers of BiH kept in his position after a four-month absence, the power to decide who can and who cannot remain in the State Investigation and Protection Agency. And already these days, Ćulum is preparing retirement decisions for Bosniak personnel, regardless of whether their service record is in order. Now, just imagine a situation where he would have a free hand to decide who to extend their stay in SIPA and who not. And would this apply to all personnel or only to those in high positions?

If the plan is to cleanse SIPA of Bosniaks, whose numbers are equal to or currently less than the number of Serbs, then the 'Trojka' is well on its way to making SIPA an extended arm of the MUP RS.

An additional problem is that the proposers stated that the law's application also applies to appointed police officers. Currently, Darko Ćulum has 49 years of service and meets the conditions for retirement. His term expired in July 2024. Given that the Council of Ministers of BiH has never declared itself on the ranking list for the director of SIPA, nor has it dismissed Ćulum after leaving SIPA, even though he had resigned, he is already in his second year out of mandate. Consecutive mandates of directors have proven to be particularly detrimental to police agencies. This is evident in the case of SIPA, as well as the Border Police of BiH, which was headed for two terms by Zoran Galić, who moved to the position of Deputy Director of SIPA, from which he fled in July 2024 to avoid arrest on the orders of the BiH Prosecutor's Office. He is accused of illegal actions and abuse of position while he was the director of the BiH Border Police in his second term.

It would have been wiser for the 'Trojka' to propose amendments to the law that would fill police agencies according to the 2013 Census, not, as is currently the case, according to the 35-year-old 1991 census! Has anyone ever wondered how agencies are filled from the 'Yugoslav' category!?

The fact is that all three state agencies are lacking personnel, and recruitment would be faster if the 2013 Census were applied. However, it is clear that such mathematics and numbers would not suit some, and there are numerous examples in other state institutions, including ministries headed by 'Trojka' cadres, where the national structure according to the 2013 Census has not been respected.

Even in the explanation of the proposed amendments, the 'Trojka' MPs did not use accurate data, constantly speculating about hundreds of police officers retiring, without showing the numbers of new cadets being recruited. According to information from SIPA, 56 police officers will retire during 2025. The most difficult situation is in the Border Police of BiH, but it should be noted that they are recruiting 150 cadets per class, so the numbers could be compensated, and if necessary, the number of cadets could be increased, which also raises the issue of increasing the capacity of the Agency for Training Cadres in Mostar, which politics (read: HDZ BiH) has been avoiding for years.

The second law proposed by the 'Trojka' MPs concerns changes to the coefficients for calculating salaries for police officers and soldiers in the Armed Forces of BiH. The proposed change provides for an increase in the coefficient for police officers by 0.02 percent, which amounts to an increase of 13 KM, and with the police allowance, it totals 17 KM. Those with higher ranks would receive the most.

On the other hand, there is a significant difference in salaries between police officers at the state level compared to the entity and cantonal levels. Police officers at the FBiH level have the highest salaries. And instead of moving towards at least approximate harmonization, which would stop the outflow of personnel from state police agencies and the BiH Armed Forces, the 'Trojka' proposed a shameful increase.

The justification cannot be the increased base for 2026 either, as it does not apply until the Budget is adopted. Therefore, during 2025, employees in state institutions were denied a salary increase because there was no budget. Only after the adoption of the Budget were they paid a one-time compensation as the difference for 2025.

Some of the MPs with whom we spoke stated that they stand by their earlier position that the laws are not acceptable in their proposed form. The 'Trojka's' earlier attempt to consider the laws under an urgent procedure was rejected, so the laws went into the regular procedure. Disagreement with these proposals was also expressed by the 'Trojka's' coalition partners HDZ and SNSD, as well as the opposition.

So as not to further explain what the 'Trojka' has proposed, we are publishing tables of the proposed coefficients and how much salaries would increase for police officers and soldiers below.