For almost 13 years in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no body that determines the conflict of interest, and the legal chaos is used by numerous officials who perform multiple functions while their private companies get government jobs without hindrance. As the resolution of this issue has been obstructed for years, Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH), with the support of 13 representatives, launched an initiative and sent the proposal of the new Law on preventing conflicts of interest in authorities in FBiH into the procedure.
Cross-party support and goals of the law
The TI BiH initiative was supported by representatives from Our Party, SDA, NiP, DF, SBiH, HRS and one independent representative.
The goal of the proposal sent to the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament is:
Establishment of an independent body that will determine and sanction conflicts of interest.
Checking the property records of officials.
Defining clear rules on incompatible functions and restrictions on private interests.
Alarming data: 265 officials in additional positions
Data from the Register of Public Functions established by TI BiH show that 265 officials in the FBiH currently hold some of the additional functions in public institutions and companies.
“A large number of them thereby violate the still valid federal law, but there is no one to determine the conflict of interest because with the adoption of the new Law at the BiH level in 2013, that competence was taken away from the CEC. This vacuum opened up space for making decisions in private or party interest, including favoritism in employment, distribution of budget funds and public procurement”, TI BiH stated.
Data from the Integrity Watch platform show that 20% of elected public office holders reported ownership in companies that won tenders in 2024.
Perennial obstructions and withdrawal of laws
TI BiH notes that this proposal is not a new text, but a solution that the previous FBiH Government established as a draft in 2022 after several years of consultations.
However, after the formation of the new Government of the FBiH in 2023, the draft was withdrawn from the procedure “for refinement”.
Almost three years later, the FBiH Ministry of Justice is still obstructing the adoption of the law, not returning it to the procedure without clear indications that this will happen by the end of the mandate.
Call for adoption in the election year
After several unsuccessful urgencies to the Government and Parliament, TI BiH proposed to the representatives to use their business rights and be proponents of an identical text that was withdrawn earlier. The draft law was officially submitted to the protocol of the FBiH Parliament on January 20.
TI BiH calls on representatives to adopt this law as a message that the public interest is above the interests of individuals and parties, stressing that it is crucial to do so in this term, given that 2026 is an election year and that the space for reform steps is rapidly narrowing, it writes N1 BiH.
