What Are Federal Prosecutors Doing with an Annual Budget of 1.2 Million KM?

The Federal Prosecutor's Office, led by Zdravko Knežević, the chief federal prosecutor, is "sleeping" despite the broad powers granted to it by law and the Constitution, writes the news agency Patria.

The story of the inactivity of the FBiH Prosecutor's Office dates back many years, and was particularly relevant in 2011 when Knežević justified that they were not doing much because they were neither staffed nor materially equipped for such a large volume of work.

He also justified himself with the fact that they lacked prosecutors (they had nine), but that too has changed, so now the Federal Prosecutor's Office has 11 prosecutors, but there is no progress in their work.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Federation of BiH has not taken over any investigation from the cantonal prosecutor's offices, although by law it has the obligation to supervise the work of lower prosecutor's offices, assist them, and, if necessary, take over "stronger" cases from them.

Also, according to the Law on the Federal Prosecutor's Office, this prosecutor's office is responsible for proceedings before the Supreme Court of FBiH when deciding on appeals against verdicts of lower courts. It is also responsible for taking over cases from cantonal prosecutor's offices, controlling their work, temporarily assigning its prosecutors to cantonal prosecutor's offices, supervising the work of all ten prosecutor's offices, and providing them with support if needed.

The annual budget of this institution is about 1.2 million KM, almost all of which goes to employee salaries. The Federal Prosecutor's Office has the right and duty, within the scope of its functions, on its own initiative or upon request, to inform the President of the Federation and the Vice President of the Federation, the Parliament of the Federation, and the Government of the Federation about the application of the Criminal Code in the Federation, as well as about its own work.

As Mirsad Kebo, Vice President of FBiH, points out to Patria, it is evident that little work is done there, because we see that from the overcrowding of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Offices.

Many unresolved major cases lie in the drawers of the Prosecutor's Office of the Sarajevo Canton, and the chief Federal Prosecutor has direct authority to control the work of cantonal prosecutors, so presumably that is one of the proofs of how and how much work is done – says Kebo.

Nermin Nikšić, Prime Minister of FBiH, also spoke about the inactivity of the FBiH Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Court of FBiH, whose president Amir Jaganjac has not appeared in public for a long time, especially during the adoption of a set of anti-corruption laws before the Parliament of FBiH.

Even then, Knežević quickly issued a statement stating that there are exact indicators of the work of the Federal Prosecutor's Office for the past ten or more years, as well as positive evaluations from the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH, as the competent authority.

But Knežević forgot that for years, deputies in the Federal Parliament have been asking what is being done in this institution.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office submits a report to the PFBiH, but the deputies do not adopt it, they only take note of it, so no one knows what they are doing.

Their obligation is to get involved in major cases and to file indictments when this cannot be done in the cantonal prosecutor's offices. No one remembers that such a thing has ever been done.