Over 1,300 corruption witnesses and victims sought legal aid from TI BiH, with most complaints against state administration and judiciary

(Patria) - Last year, the Transparency International BiH Legal Aid Centre received 1337 calls from citizens and acted in 317 cases related to specific corruption incidents. Among the complainants, the majority were witnesses (42.2%) and victims of corruption (28.3%), followed by public sector employees or so-called whistleblowers (12.6%) who reported corruption in the workplace. The number of whistleblowers (40 in total in 2023) who contact TI BiH is again far greater than the number of individuals granted protected whistleblower status by competent institutions, which clearly shows that citizens still lack sufficient trust in the system.

As in previous years, the largest number of cases relate to the state administration sector (135), where citizens most frequently reported irregularities in employment. In one of the cases, the Ombudsman Institution for Human Rights of BiH issued a recommendation to the Railways of the Republic of Srpska and the Ministry of Transport and Communications of RS to rectify discriminatory treatment in employment within this public enterprise. Furthermore, acting on a TI BiH report, the Public Procurement Agency of BiH filed a request for initiating misdemeanor proceedings with the misdemeanor department of the competent Municipal Court in Sarajevo against “Lutrija BiH” because this contracting authority, in the procurement of advertising on web portals, directed towards specific portals, some of which even lacked advertising space.

Last year also saw a case where, after TI BiH's intervention, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Policy determined that the competent service of the Zenica-Doboj Canton was obliged to pay a one-time allowance to 3043 unemployed persons who were initially denied this assistance.

Following public administration, the largest number of TI BiH's actions were recorded in the judiciary (38). In one of the most significant cases, TI BiH filed a disciplinary complaint against the Chief Prosecutor of BiH, Milanko Kajganić, who assigned most cases outside the automatic TCMS management system, which led to the dismissal of his predecessor, Gordana Tadić. Last year, TI BiH also initiated 30 cases related to conflict of interest before the competent institutions, and after the work of the state Commission was recently unblocked, the first sanctions were imposed against the Director of the Communications Regulatory Agency of BiH, Draško Milinović, while proceedings were initiated against state minister Sevlid Hurtić and the new director of BH Telecom, Amel Kovačević.

In 2023, the Legal Aid Centre in the fight against corruption marked 20 years of operation, having supported numerous citizens whose rights were violated or who witnessed corrupt practices. It is significant to note that trends have changed; in earlier years, reports primarily concerned bribery by doctors and police officers. Now, citizens are reporting more abuse of official position by judicial office holders, as well as violations of law by police bodies, which is particularly problematic as these are institutions that should play a leading role in the fight against corruption.

TI BiH will continue to provide legal assistance to citizens facing corruption in the future. They can contact TI BiH anonymously via the free phone number 0800 55555 and the online platform prijavikorupciju.org.

TI BiH particularly invites whistleblowers, or individuals reporting corruption from their immediate work environment, to reach out if they require legal support.