Assembly of Zenica-Doboj Canton Adopts Draft Law on Reporting and Verification of Property Data of Public Office Holders

(Patria) - The Assembly of the Zenica-Doboj Canton adopted the Draft Law on Reporting and Verification of Property Data of Public Office Holders and sent it for public debate.

Prime Minister Nezir Pivić recalled that in his exposé during the appointment of the Government, he announced a decisive fight against corruption, which was previously demonstrated by establishing registers of employees and appointed persons, and the adoption of this law is a new important step in that direction.

"The draft was adopted unanimously, and that is a good signal for the work of the Government and what we have proposed. We have a public debate ahead of us, and of course, there will be opportunities to discuss the content itself, and possibly amendments to the draft. It is important to emphasize that this law will apply to all appointed persons, not only in the canton but also in cities and municipalities within the canton, and we will actually achieve the restoration of citizens' trust in the institutions of power in the ZDK area," said Prime Minister Pivić.

He stated that activities have already been initiated and working groups have been formed that will work on establishing the remaining registers, such as the register of gifts, the register of incentives, and the register of subsidies and transfers, with the intention of consolidating important information related to the spending of funds from the ZDK budget in one place.

"It is certainly important that transparency will be increased at the local level, that mayors and city mayors, as well as other appointed persons at the local level, will need to justify their financial resources and assets, and this will certainly be a good indicator of whether public office holders in the ZDK are trusted or not," said the Prime Minister of ZDK.

Answering a journalist's question about whether the proposed penalties are discouraging public office holders from reporting their assets, Prime Minister Pivić said that the penalties can be increased in the draft law if requested during the public debate.

"Information if someone is hiding assets is the basis for investigative bodies to potentially verify information about the assets of public office holders. The fact that information that someone is not submitting information will be publicly disclosed is in itself an indicator of the behavior of those individuals, and monetary fines are another form of incentive," said Prime Minister Pivić.

Minister of Justice and Administration Nebojša Nikolić thanked the representatives for supporting the draft law, inviting all local communities to participate in the public debate so that the law is ultimately of the highest quality. He stated that during the drafting of the law, opinions from cities and municipalities were sought.

"Such a law should have been adopted at the state level, and then lowered to the level of the FBiH and cantons. However, the law has been pending at the FBiH level for a long time. We decided to do it at the canton level, and that is why we had cooperation with local communities. Only "negative opinion" in terms of constitutional jurisdiction was given by the City of Zavidovići. Other local self-government units did not raise objections, but I certainly expect their detailed involvement in the public debate," said Minister Nikolić.