SIPA submitted a report to the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in 2018: Who protected the American University and Prcić?

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – The State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) submitted a report to the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton as early as 2018, documenting irregularities at the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina, headed by Denis Prcić, about which former employees and students also gave statements. The case was assigned to prosecutor Sanin Bogunić, but to this day the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office has taken no action on the matter.

Only after the Director of the Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA), Osman Mehmedagić, submitted a diploma from the American University in BiH, which he declared a secret, did details begin to leak that the Patria News Agency had been writing about for years and for which we are still awaiting a judicial epilogue. 

The case from the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office was transferred to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, which is conducting an investigation into Mehmedagić's diploma. At the time, the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office was headed by Dalida Burzić, now a judge of the Court of BiH, who was also compromised due to the Memić case, for which a disciplinary procedure was conducted just before her appointment as a judge of the Court of BiH. Burzić is covered by a criminal complaint from the Memić family, for which the Prosecutor's Office of BiH opened an investigation into organized crime. 

The Cantonal Prosecutor's Office and prosecutor Bogunić should answer the question of why they did not take action based on the submitted SIPA report on the American University in BiH, which, under the guise of the American School of Economics (as it was registered in Sarajevo), conducted classes for students of the American University, which does not have a work permit in the area of Sarajevo Canton but exclusively in Tuzla Canton. 

In the response that the Cantonal Administration for Inspection Affairs of Sarajevo Canton provided to Patria in March 2018, after two conducted inspection supervisions of the work of the American School of Economics, it is stated that the inspection sent a letter to the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office, which declared itself incompetent. 

There are numerous testimonies from students and former employees that students of the American University in BiH attended classes in Sarajevo, not in Tuzla, and that only diplomas were issued in Tuzla. 

The report states that Prcić asked students and staff to claim during inspection supervisions that they were students and lecturers at the American School of Economics, not the American University in BiH. Classes were held in rented premises in UNITIC, and later in the TV Pink building on Alipašino Polje. Prcić did not stay there long either, so he rented several rooms within the building of the Secondary Mechanical School in Sarajevo. 

Frequent changes of locations, teaching staff, student registrations, and inadequate premises should have been sufficient reason for the work of inspection and investigative bodies, which, through their inaction, enabled Prcić's enrichment. Although according to the Law on Higher Education, a higher education institution is formally managed by a rector, Prcić has titled himself „president“ since the founding of the American University in BiH and made all key decisions. 

As early as 2016, the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Sarajevo Canton confirmed to NAP that the American School of Economics does not have institutional accreditation, and it was only in February 2018 that it was entered into the State Register of Accredited Higher Education Institutions in BiH. 

Although we sent an inquiry a month ago to the Cantonal Inspection of Tuzla Canton regarding conducted supervisions at the American University in BiH, and whether the American University in BiH operates in accordance with the applicable Law on Higher Education of Tuzla Canton and whether all conditions for conducting classes are met, we have not received a response. 

At the end of August, Prcić sent a letter to the heads of security agencies, ministries of security, and interior ministries, stating that „we are again at your institution's disposal to award a number of full scholarships to interested employees of your police agency or administration.“ 

Although the work of the American University in BiH has been accompanied by scandals from the very beginning, about which Slobodna Bosna also wrote as early as 2010, it is evident that Prcić enjoys certain political protection. One of the lecturers at the American University in BiH is Selmo Cikotić, the current Minister of Security of BiH, as well as Samir Rizvo, also from the Ministry of Security. 

Prcić also attempted, through „signing agreements“ with police agencies, including SIPA, to avoid potential investigations and accountability. So far, he has succeeded.