BANJALUKA – At the next session of the National Assembly of the RS, which will be held on October 29, deputies will urgently consider the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the Protection of Persons Who Report Corruption.
Although at first glance it may seem like a minor change, the interlocutors of the Guerilla portal point out that this change, if adopted, fundamentally changes the article according to which the National Assembly is no longer informed about the situation in this area and only the Government of the RS remains informed, which de facto means that there won’t even be any debate about corruption in Srpska because the opposition will be excluded from it, and thus there will be no public debate about one of the biggest cancers of our society!
The proposer of the Amendment to the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Protection of Persons Who Report Corruption – under urgent procedure is the Ministry of Justice of the RS, and this item on the agenda will be before the deputies immediately after the parliamentary questions and answers, i.e. the current hour.
Transparency International BiH points out that this amendment to the Law is not at all foreseen in the Work Program of the Government of the Republic of Srpska for 2024, but the public was informed about it only in the announcement of the agenda of the 84th session of the Government of the Republic of Srpska, where this Proposal was discussed and determined as an emergency procedure.
On the official website of the Government of the RS, it was announced that the proposal to amend the law corrects the provision relating to the competence of the Commission for the implementation of the strategy for the fight against corruption, in order to establish a more efficient and simple system for the fight against corruption, and it was stated that in the Ministry of Justice of the Republika Srpska there is department whose competence is the implementation of the strategy for the fight against corruption, which is why the existence of the Commission for the implementation of the strategy for the fight against corruption of the Republic of Srpska has become unnecessary.
“However, the amendment of the law does not refer only to the deletion of the Commission for the Implementation of the Strategy for the Fight against Corruption of the RS from the text of the law, but also to the complete amendment of the essence of the provision which stipulates the obligation to submit an annual report on the number and outcome of received reports and procedures for the protection of persons who they report corruption to the National Assembly of the RS and the Government of the RS,” Ena Kljajić Grgić, head of the Center for Providing Legal Assistance at Transparency International BiH, tells Gerila.
She adds that the proposed changes stipulate that the Ministry of Justice will in the future submit the annual report only to the Government of the RS for consideration, while the reasons why the NSRS is excluded from the process of mandatory submission of the annual report are not stated at all in the accompanying act that was published in the materials scheduled for the 11th. regular sessions of the National Assembly of the RS. In the same way, the reasons for the adoption of changes to this law by urgent procedure have not been published.
Otherwise, parliamentary control of the administration is accepted in all modern legal systems and represents an assessment of the political expediency of the administration’s work. Parliament reviews whether the administration implements the set policy, achieves the set goals, and exercises its powers in accordance with the public interest. The most important thing about parliamentary control is the fact that the discussion on an issue ends with a vote, and in that context it is also possible to raise the issue of political responsibility of ministers and other office holders, TI BiH adds.
“It is interesting to follow how the People’s Deputies of the Republic of Srpska will decide in this particular case, i.e. whether they will vote for changes to the law, which effectively denies them the possibility of reviewing a very important annual report that shows the work, work problems and results achieved in the field of protection of persons who report corruption. On the other hand, it is an open question why the Ministry of Justice of the RS, which is the proposer of these changes, wants to exclude the National Assembly from the process of considering the report”, points out Ena Kljajić Grgić.
Interestingly, if these changes are adopted, the annual report for the current year 2024 will not be presented to the people’s deputies in the assembly of the Republic of Srpska!
Lawyer Milan Malešević agrees that this proposed change is controversial on several grounds, who points out that the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska is the only forum where polemics can be held and where the opposition has the opportunity to express its views, while there is, of course, no opposition in the Government of the RS.
“First, the amendment places control and supervision over corruption reports exclusively in the hands of the Government, without the involvement of external or independent bodies such as the commission. In a system where the opposition has no influence on the work of the Government, this may mean that procedures related to the protection of whistleblowers will take place in an environment without adequate public control,” Malešević emphasized in a statement for Guerilla.
He adds that the opposition, which can ask questions in the Assembly, has limited access to these processes within the Government, which reduces the possibility of critical review of those reports.
“Secondly, the centralization of reporting in the Ministry of Justice, which now reports directly to the Government, may raise concerns about the lack of transparency. Without an independent commission or similar body to play an oversight role, there is a risk that reports of corruption are not dealt with in a fair or impartial manner. In such a context, political control over the fight against corruption becomes stronger, which potentially weakens the protection of whistleblowers and can lead to a decrease in public confidence in the anti-corruption process. This change, therefore, can be a step backwards in terms of transparency and independence of institutions, especially in a political system where pluralism in the government is practically non-existent”, says Malešević for our portal.
He adds that, in a broader context, these changes follow on from other legal changes, such as the criminalization of defamation and stricter regulation of the work of non-governmental organizations, which were recently adopted in the Republic of Srpska.
“These changes together create a framework in which the government’s control over civil society, freedom of expression and critical thinking is strengthened, gradually approaching the concept of a police state,” warns Malešević.
Even MPs from the opposition are surprised by this move of the Ministry of Justice, even though it is known that the fight against corruption is not on the priority list of our institutions.
“It is precisely because of this that our country is deeply mired in corruption. Strategies and commissions for the fight against corruption have proven to be useless fronts, because there are no results, while corruption scandals are piling up. “Unfortunately, in the public space, we come across examples of corrupt actions far more often than concrete moves to suppress them”, MP Tanja Vukomanović says for Gerila.
She also emphasizes that the fact that a new department in the Ministry of Justice is taking over the work of the Commission for the Implementation of the Strategy for the Fight against Corruption of Republika Srpska may mean that this issue is further centralized.
“Although the explanation states that the goal is to “establish a more efficient and simpler system of fighting corruption”, I am afraid that this only means a more efficient and simpler dealing with persons who would report corruption. How the Government protects people who report corruption is best shown by the example of the mailboxes in the Government building that were installed a few years ago so that employees could anonymously report corruption, and the corridors where the mailboxes are covered by video surveillance. This means that all this is done for the sake of form, without any detailed approach and without any expectation that these measures will produce results”, Vukomanović adds in an interview for our portal. Guerrilla
Source: capital.ba
