Transparency International: Citizens of BiH pay the price of corruption with their lives

(Patria) - The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International for 2020 ranks Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) among the countries in the world where the situation
of corruption is deteriorating the most. Noting BiH's drop of 11 places, the index ranks BiH 111th out of 180 countries, with a score of 35 (scale from 0-100), which is also the worst score since 2012, when BiH was ranked 72nd with a score of 42.

BiH is the worst positioned in the Western Balkan region and shares a place with North Macedonia. In the region, Slovenia is best positioned with a score of 60, followed by Croatia with 47, Montenegro with 45, Serbia with 38, and Kosovo with 36. The best-positioned countries globally on the Corruption Perception Index are habitually Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, and other Western countries with a high degree of democracy.

The bottom is held by countries affected by war, lawlessness, and dictatorship, and this year these are Syria, Somalia, and South Sudan. Contextualizing the index findings, the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly marked the past year but also completely exposed the darkest face of corruption, the price of which citizens unfortunately pay with their own lives. Institutions paralyzed by corruption prioritized unscrupulous theft of public funds, at the expense of ensuring adequate healthcare. The entire period of the pandemic was marked by non-transparent and unresolved procurements of medical equipment. These, as well as numerous other cases of corruption where the criminal trail leads to the very top of power, and which have shaken the BiH public, have not yet received an epilogue, which has further undermined the already almost non-existent credibility of the judiciary and public trust.

Instead of making an uncompromising contribution to solving the problem of corruption, the judiciary itself has become the most burning and biggest problem of BiH society. Politically instrumentalized, without elementary independence and accountability, it requires urgent and in-depth reform based on the implementation of detailed checks of all judicial officeholders (vetting) as a first step in the fight against corruption.

BiH does not have an adequate policy or strategy for fighting corruption, and the legal framework has been awaiting complete and comprehensive reconstruction for years, which is unequivocally emphasized by the European Commission among the 14 priorities for obtaining candidate status. The lack of progress and direct blockades in improving the legal framework for preventing conflicts of interest, financing of political parties, protection of whistleblowers, and public procurement only confirms the complete capture of the state and the institutional framework. The extent of state capture raises questions about the legitimacy of the authorities in BiH, which is further eroded by systemic fraud and the absence of integrity in the electoral process. TI BiH documented over 2,500 instances of open abuse of public resources during the campaign in the last election campaign alone.

The situation is particularly worrying in the Federation of BiH, which has not even established a government after the elections two and a half years ago, the Constitutional Court has not been filled, there is no legal framework for the protection of whistleblowers, and the Law on Conflict of Interest and the Law on Combating Corruption and Organized Crime are not being implemented, all of which makes the overall situation in this entity anarchic.

"The country has been going in the wrong direction for a long time, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis resulting from the pandemic, combined with the increasing deterioration of the level of corruption, can create a very volatile mix that can lead BiH into a phase of high risk of complete paralysis of institutional functioning," emphasized Srđan Blagovčanin, Chairman of the Steering Board of TI BiH, at the Index presentation.

"In such a context, systematic human rights violations, existential uncertainty of citizens, as well as the threat to life itself due to the inadequate response of the authorities in protecting the health of the population, can lead to an escalation of anger among citizens."

Political parties are undoubtedly the key protagonists of state capture, led by undisputed leaders in whose hands real power is concentrated, they have completely mastered the public sector, subordinating it to their own needs at the expense of public interest.

Frequent human rights violations, as pointed out by international actors, especially in the context of restricting freedom of assembly in Republika Srpska, which has been mentioned several times in European Commission reports, are a direct consequence of deeply rooted corruption, i.e., the intention to prevent the exposure of corruption and accountability at all costs. The erosion of democratic standards, the suppression of freedom of speech, and the creation of an atmosphere of intolerance for critical voices have been a long-term trend in BiH.