Transparency International: Špirić's appointment undermines all anti-corruption efforts

BANJA LUKA, (Patria) - Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) warns that the appointment of Nikola Špirić to the Commission for the Election and Monitoring of the Work of the Agency for Prevention and Coordination of the Fight Against Corruption (APIK) undermines all efforts in the fight against corruption. The Parliamentary Assembly elected a politician to a parliamentary body who, according to official information from the US government, is involved in high-level corruption and bribery related to the public offices he held. Špirić and his family are banned from entering the US due to their involvement in corruption.

"The Commission, as an independent body of the Parliamentary Assembly, supervises the work of APIK and plays a key role in the appointment and dismissal of the leadership of the only institution whose mandate is exclusively dedicated to the fight against corruption. By appointing Špirić, the legislative authority allows a politician facing the most serious accusations of corruption to monitor, supervise, and influence the work of the Anti-Corruption Agency. TI BiH reminds that the Commission's role has been controversial even before, with the last published report on the Commission's work being for 2017, while the last session was held more than two years ago. The inefficiency of parliamentary oversight is also evident in the fact that the deputy director of APIK has not been appointed for the same period.

TI BiH also recalls the warning from federal auditors that since 2015, conditions have not been created to implement the Law on Combating Corruption and Organized Crime in the FBiH, as accommodation capacities for special departments for combating corruption, organized, and inter-cantonal crime within the Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Court of the FBiH have not been provided. At the same time, the first deputy is acting as the chief federal prosecutor, despite his term having expired, and the number of unresolved cases in the Federal Prosecutor's Office is increasing.

Ineffective parliamentary oversight of an independent anti-corruption institution and the appointment of a politician accused of high-level corruption to a parliamentary body that monitors the work of that institution, as well as the authorities' resistance to providing funds for special prosecutorial departments for organized crime and corruption, reveal that there is not even a minimum of political will to fight corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead of creating conditions for the fight against corruption, legal, institutional, and financial prerequisites are being created to thwart any attempt to combat corruption," stated Transparency International.