FBiH Government: FUP can function even without a director

The FBiH Government, at today's session in Sarajevo, unanimously adopted a Decision not to accept the final proposal of the Independent Board for the appointment of Dragan Lukač as director of the Federal Police Administration, announced the FBiH Government, as reported by the Bosnian news agency Patria.

The Government made this decision because the legal prerequisites for considering the Decision on the final proposal of the Independent Board of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina were not met.

In the explanation of the FBiH Government's Decision, it is stated that the Independent Board conducted the procedure for the selection of the director of the Federal Police Administration based on a Law that has ceased to be in force. The Government notes that on October 11, 2014, a new Law came into effect, thereby repealing the previous Law on Internal Affairs of the Federation of BiH. Furthermore, the Law does not contain any transitional provisions based on which the Law that has since ceased to be in force could be applied.

Consequently, and starting from the fact that the contents of the new and old Law are irreconcilably different in the part concerning the selection of the director of the Federal Police Administration, the procedure had to be suspended by annulling the competition. In order to comply with the conditions of the Law, the competent authority could and should have announced a new public competition and, on that basis, established a list of three candidates from which the director of the Federal Police Administration would be selected.

The Government of the Federation of BiH particularly points out that the principle of the rule of law obliges all public authorities, and especially the executive authority, to respect the standards of this principle in the sense that it can and must act only on the basis of laws that are in force. Accordingly, the Government of the Federation of BiH cannot act according to the provisions of a Law that has ceased to be in force, because it formally and legally no longer exists. The lack of usual transitional provisions, which give legitimacy to the application of such a Law for procedures initiated before the entry into force of the Law, excludes any possibility of applying the Law that has ceased to be in force.

Based on the aforementioned norms of the Law, as well as the Law that has ceased to be in force, the Government of the Federation of BiH is the body that participates in the entire procedure for the selection of the director of the Federal Police Administration.

The Federal Government also noted that the functioning of the Federal Police Administration is in no way jeopardized since, based on the Law on Internal Affairs of the FBiH, its work, until the appointment of a director, is managed by the acting director.