Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton to Inspect Delegates in the FBiH Parliament

The Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton (KS) has opened a case to verify the legality of the use of separation allowance by delegates in the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), as well as the employment of advisors to Lidija Bradara, the chairperson of this house.

The case was opened after the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN) published research on fake accommodations of delegates and the employment of eight advisors to Bradara.

- A case has been opened regarding both of these issues, both of your investigative articles - said Alem Hamzić, spokesperson for the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office.

For delegates in the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament, rent for an apartment is one of the primary conditions for exercising the right to compensation for the costs of living separately in Sarajevo.

Delegates arranged low rents for apartments that are unsuitable for living or far from the FBiH Parliament. In a large number of apartments paid for delegates, other people actually live, so half of the delegates do not use them.

The House of Peoples has no system to control how delegates use this right. From the beginning of 2015 to mid-2017, slightly more than 825,000 marks were spent on the costs of living separately from family for 35 delegates from this institution.

CIN also discovered that five of the eight advisors appointed by Lidija Bradara did not have five years of work experience, as required by federal regulations.

Officials are not required to announce competitions when hiring advisors – they choose them themselves. Bradara also used this right when appointing her advisors. In two years and two months, more than 306,000 KM from the federal budget was spent on salaries and allowances for Bradara's eight advisors.

According to the Law on Civil Service of FBiH, although they do not have the status of civil servants, advisors must meet the same conditions as candidates for assistants to senior civil servants. These conditions are not specified by the Law but by a special Regulation, which requires five years of work experience.

For one of them, this was their first job, while four had work experience ranging from eight months to two years. Most of her advisors are party members or relatives and acquaintances of politicians.