BANJALUKA, MAY 26 (ONASA) – The authorities of Republika Srpska are trying with new amendments to the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest to completely legalize this phenomenon and enable public officials to head associations financed from the budget, according to Transparency International.
Transparency International in BiH sent comments on the draft amendments to this law established by the Ministry of Administration and Local Self-Government of the RS, where only one article is changed, which allows elected officials, holders of executive functions and advisers to perform additional functions in associations financed with public money if they do not receive compensation for it.
“What is completely absurd is that the changes to this law, the improvement of which the European Union has been seeking for years, were expressly referred to the procedure when the former president of the Supreme Court of Justice and advisor to the President of Republika Srpska, Milan Tegelti, found himself in a conflict of interest. This law currently prohibits public officials and their advisors to be at the head of any association that is financed from the budget with more than 100,000 KM”, TI states.
As Tegeltija was recently appointed as the head of FK Borac Banjaluka, who, according to official information submitted to TI BIH, received 2 million KM from the Government of RS this year alone, it is clear that he is in a conflict of interest, which is why TI BIH is against him and leaders of five other football clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina sent a report to the authorities.
Apologizing to the media, Tegeltija recently reduced the appearance of a conflict of interest in financing the association to receiving a salary, stating that he does not receive compensation for his work in the club, and therefore there are no “two conflicting interests”.
Immediately after presenting this interpretation, the Ministry initiated a procedure to amend this law, in which only one article is changed and officials who do not receive compensation for their work in the association are exempted from the ban.
“Such a provision, apart from not being harmonized with laws on conflict of interest at any level in BiH, is contrary to other provisions of this law which define that the private interest of an official includes any advantage for him or the organizations with which he had or has business, political and other connections. The goal of this law is to prevent officials from distributing money from the budget to their own associations and private companies, so the appearance of a conflict of interest cannot be reduced to receiving a salary,” TI BiH explained.
TI BIH has been warning for a long time that it is unacceptable for the same people to be in the government that distributes public funds and at the head of the association where they decide on the way to spend that public money, and it should be reminded that the public has been rocked for years by scandals surrounding the misuse of public funds for these purposes. It should also be noted that the public has no insight into how sports clubs and other associations spend the money they receive from the budget and that funds are distributed without a public call, established procedures and measurable criteria.
These changes open up space for additional abuses, Transparency claims, and it should certainly be said that the RS has the worst law in this segment because the bans do not apply to double functions in numerous associations that receive less than 100,000 KM per year, while, for example, in the Brčko District, the bans apply to all associations that receive over 10,000 KM.
“That is why such changes are contrary to the requirements of the EU set through 14 priorities, where all levels of government are asked to harmonize and improve laws on conflict of interest, and this is not the first time that we have attempted to adopt solutions that are worse than the existing ones. TI BIH therefore calls on the authorities in Republika Srpska to abandon the adoption of this law and finally introduce a law harmonized with international standards into the procedure,” they concluded. (end)