TRIAL FOR CORRUPTION BUT THE COMPETITION CONTINUES New director, old problems in the Border Police!

By Amra Vrabac 

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Not even a year and a half after the corruption affair in the BiH Border Police regarding the competition for admitting cadets (police officers and junior inspectors), there is no final epilogue to that competition, which was supposed to admit 150 cadets.

A year after the affair (the list of cadets was published in September 2021), the BiH Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against six persons in September 2022, while two of the accused signed a guilt admission agreement, and later one more accused did the same.

The first accused is Rejhan Raković, who was the president of the Cadet Admission Commission and head of the Covert Operations Department in the BP BiH and one of the associates of the then director Zoran Galić, who formed the Commission. During his testimony at the BiH Court, Galić stated that Raković was his best police officer and that he was very sorry.

Raković is accused of uniting BPBiH police officers Ensar Salčinović and Kenit Čakić with the aim of obtaining financial gain by demanding and receiving money from candidates who applied for the public advertisement published in November 2020, according to Raković's instructions. The indictment states that members of the group, after Raković provided them with names and data, contacted a certain number of candidates and demanded between 10,000 and 30,000 convertible marks (KM) in exchange for enabling them to obtain enough points for nomination and employment through the competition. According to the indictment, Raković would, using his authority, enable candidates to obtain enough points to be nominated for employment.

For the position of "police officer", between 10,000 and 20,000 KM was requested, and for the rank of "junior inspector", 30,000 KM was requested, according to the indictment.

The fifth and sixth accused - Mirza Ramljak, who is accused of gifting an official in BiH institutions, i.e., handing over 30,000 KM to Salčinović after his competition results were altered, thus nominating him for employment, and Ivica Sabljo, who is accused of accepting a benefit as an official in BP BiH by using his official position - agreed to a plea deal with the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sabljo enabled a candidate to take a new essay which he later inserted into the file and awarded the candidate more points.  

Armin Otuzbir, who demanded money from a candidate for admission through the competition, later signed a guilt admission agreement.

The BiH Prosecutor's Office proposed 34 witnesses, including a number of candidates from whom money was requested and taken. The exact number of candidates who paid money for admission to BP BiH is not known. It is probably not known to the BiH Prosecutor's Office either, but the prosecutor in charge did not even ask the BiH Court for a measure to stop or annul the competition, even though there were already admissions that money had been requested and received. 100,000 KM was found in Rejhan Raković's possession alone.

Some candidates filed appeals with the Police Officer Appeals Committee, headed by Samir Rizvo from the Ministry of Security of BiH. This Committee did not exist at first, and then it did not act on the submitted appeals for months. When the Committee finally considered the appeals, they decided that the first-instance body (BP BiH, i.e., the Cadet Admission Commission), after annulling certain tests and checks and excluding candidates from further selection, should continue with the procedure prescribed by the Law on Police Officers of BiH, the Decision on the Appointment of the Candidate Selection Commission, and that it should prepare and publish a score list of all candidates who took the tests and make a new Decision with all prescribed lists, thereby rectifying all illegalities and irregularities.

Such a decision by the Committee caused reactions within the BiH Border Police as well. A group of BP BiH police officers sent a report to the BiH Prosecutor's Office, the Sarajevo Canton Office for Combating Corruption and Quality Management, the BiH Court, SIPA, and the BiH Border Police against several individuals, including former and current directors of BP BiH, the deputy director of BP BiH, members of the Cadet Admission Commission, and the president and members of the Police Officer Appeals Committee, for abuse of official position and damage to the reputation of the police authority.

In the report, the police officers point out that Ivica Sabljo was a member of the Cadet Admission Commission, admitted guilt, but was acquitted of responsibility by the Disciplinary Commission and still works as a commander in the BiH Border Police. 

The police officers emphasize that the competition is completely compromised and that it would have been the correct decision to annul it.

“The now former director of BP BiH Galić Zoran, instead of annulling the competition, appointed new commission members with his deputy Fahrudin Halač, appointing Edin Anđelija as president instead of Raković, and Ivan Mišetić instead of Ivica Sabljo, while the previous member Đorđo Kusmuk remained on the Commission. Two previous members from the Ministry of Security of BiH withdrew, so Minister Nenad Nešić appointed two other members to the Commission. One member, Mustafa Pašalić, resigned after several commission meetings. The new director of BP BiH, Mirko Kuprešaković, approved the continuation of the Commission's work,” the report states.

This group of police officers claims that no one can say with certainty how many candidates paid money for admission and whether these candidates are now awaiting the continuation of the competition.

“Should the BiH Border Police admit such individuals and let them wear and tarnish the BP BiH uniform? And what about those candidates who were under 35 years old during the application period, which is the upper age limit for applying, and now these candidates are 37 years old, should they also proceed? Someone wants the competition to continue, and the question is why. Continuing a compromised competition is a criminal offense of abuse of official position. The members of the Police Committee who made the decision that the competition can continue are also criminally liable,” the report states.

We sent an inquiry to the BiH Border Police on March 21 regarding the further procedure with this competition. We will publish the answer later, after we receive it.