Corruption In Republika Srpska

Profit for Everybody

AIM Banja Luka, September 29, 2000

An investigation team of the International Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives has, at the request of the chairman of the Committee, Benjamin Giaman and two other Congressmen, established that "the main cause of the overall corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) lies in a complex web of ties between organized crime and government officials." Basically, the web was established as far back as the war, when the criminals backed the authorities by supplying them with food and arms, the investigators concluded. The particular connection between the government and the criminals is "the prime cause of political parties still being inseparable from criminal organizations." According to the findings of the investigation, corruption permeates all levels of the government in B&H and is already becoming a standard form of behaviour.

The prevalence of corruption has brought about a situation where almost a half of the business deals in B&H economy are veiled under the guise of the so called "grey economy" which makes the evasion of taxes and customs possible, a practice public firms are engaged in as well. Public acquisitions are entirely non- transparent. And that's not the end of it. On examining the issue of the judiciary, the investigators have cautioned that "the inadequate judiciary system prevents the instigation of criminal proceedings against government members who have committed fraud", stressing the presence of political influences in many phases of the legal process. Laws pertaining to the rooting out of corruption either do not exist, or exist on paper only.

The Dutch ambassador to the UN, Peter van Valsum, has said that B&H looses 500 million dollars a year because of the corruption involving high government officials. Without these losses, there would be no budget deficit, he declared at an UN Security Council session on B&H. Representatives of the International Monetary Fund cited that around 230 million dollars are lost annually, due merely to the black-marketing of cigarettes and that the government shows little interest in regulating the malpractice.

If the representatives of the international institutions had not signalled to the alarming deficit of the Republic of Srpska (RS) amounting to 200 million convertible Bosnian marks, who knows when the Parliament would have opened the debate on the subject or undertaken any measures. If not for the pre-electoral skirmishes of the, up to yesterday, close political allies, little would be heard of the big scandals presently leaking into the public, owing to the breakdown of former alliances. The most recent being the incidents of black-marketing of petrol and coffee.

International organisations have launched a large scale campaign against corruption in B&H lately. Asked to state his expectations as far as the present B&H authorities, not likely to be overly interested in supporting the campaign are concerned, the head of the OSCE mission to B&H, Robert Berry said: "We do not expect much support from the authorities playing a major role in all this, but we do expect they will no longer exist after November 11."

The administrations of the two entities have not yet taken any systemic measures to stimulate the growth of small and medium firms. Tax rates are maintaining the level of almost a 100 per cents of the net salaries of the employees. The administrations are consciously slowing down the process of privatization in order to profit from the stations which enable them to " clear " the assets of these firms and manipulate the banks, for instance by issuing bank guarantees. It is suspected that the list of strategic firms for privatization has been largely cut out in accordance with private interests. On the other hand, the policy towards small and medium firms is relentless, because they are being viewed as competition and tax "milch-cows". Aside from devastating the public resources, corruption is also undermining the democratic rule and is undoubtedly one of the key stumbling blocks for Milorad Dodik and the Government he heads.

The Brussels Declaration of the Council for the Implementation of Peace in B&H points to the same problem and the Council believes that the comprehensive strategy of the Office of High Representative (OHR) in fighting corruption represents a solid foundation for attaining this goal. Officials are expected to back the strategy and institutions conducting it actively and unquestioningly.

Under the pressure of the international community, two anti-corruption teams headed by the Prime Ministers, Edhem Bicakcic and Milorad Dodik, have been formed. The strategic anti-corruption team of RS is made up of practically every key minister who might contribute to the warding off of corruption, such as the Minister of Interior and Justice, reinforced by members of the Intelligence and Security Services and Customs. Apart from it, an operational anti-corruption team whose very name reveals its purpose, was also put together. It is headed by Sinisa Karan, chief of the Criminal police of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), and almost entirely composed of assistants of the strategic team members. This is precisely where the ensuing bureaucratic-political tangle springs from, for, instead of contributing to the rooting out of corruption, the bureaucratic manner of organization, decision-making and operating of the teams is not likely to bring about desired results.

The operative anti-corruption team is not authorized to undertake any autonomous actions or react in concrete cases, its role amounting to the mere gathering of information which are then forwarded to the strategic team for evaluation and decision-making, i.e. choosing the course of action in each case. Owing to this, the entire anti-corruption campaign has been slowed down, the likelihood of leakage of information heightened and the vulnerability to political compromises enhanced. Not less paradoxically, even if the whole procedure is efficiently and swiftly executed by both anti-corruption teams, the case considered will finally be resolved solely through the authorization of the very people who have already examined it, this time deciding on it as members of the relevant governmental departments. This gives rise to the key question which reveals how paradoxical the entire situation is: if the very same people and very same services are involved in fighting back corruption, bribery and crime, both in the anti-corruption teams and in relevant governmental departments, who is superfluous in that case, i.e. who isn't doing his job? Does this mean that these people are doing a good job as members of the anti-corruption teams, and a poor one as government officials, or is the opposite true? If they are successful in carrying out the task as government officials, what's the purpose of anti-corruption teams, if not to whitewash both the public at home and the international community. In other words, why hasn't any of the authorized officials from RS been fired for his inactivity up to now, instead of trying to solve the problem by duplicating task-teams consisting of practically the same people with identical duties?

Within the Criminal Police framework there is separate section for commercial crime whose primary function is identical to the task assigned to anti-corruption teams, the same being true of the Sector for Customs Frauds of the Republic Customs Administration. Thus, it's hardly clear why the heads of these sections should be expected to be more efficient in the anti-corruption teams than as heads of respective government services.

Sinisa Karan says that commercial crime has acquired the status of a top-priority issue, but that the process of exposure itself is burdened with certain difficulties. Trials last too long and, at the moment, the criminal police is finalizing cases from three years back. "Our work is aggravated by the environment and atmosphere of commercial crime. A lot of valuable time is lost in documenting or checking out facts connected to a case, abroad or in the neighbouring entity."

Allan Wilson, General Manager of the International Customs and Fiscal Aid Organisation Office in Banja Luka, stated that they were "impressed with the achievements of the Sector for Customs Frauds of the Republic Customs Administration, obtained in spite of the shortage of personnel, although a long road lies ahead."

Lately, the Customs Administration has been involved in numerous scandals, but no one has yet been removed from office because of this, meaning that everybody is doing a good job. Since nobody has been relieved of a post in either MUP or any other government service, it only goes to say that duties are being fulfilled. In that case, how should the evaluations of the international community officials from the beginning of this text be judged?

It seems that in this fairytale about corruption, it is difficult to put an end to it because it is profitable for all.

Mladen Mirosavljevic

(AIM)