Judiciary
Judicial authorities often belatedly issue orders to freeze the assets of convicts after they have managed to sell them off.
Centar za istraživačko novinarstvo (CIN)
08.5.2011
Judicial authorities often belatedly issue orders to freeze the assets of convicts after they have managed to sell them off.
Zoran Ćopić gave an exclusive interview to OCCRP seven days before he was arrested.
While the number of reported corruption cases rises, there are fewer trials and investigations against politicians can take years. BiH courts have acquitted one third of the white-collar defendants who have come before them, and mainly only the lowest level offenders get convicted. One out of five convicts get a jail term, while 80 percent gets away with a fine or probation.
Nedim Ćosić was appointed as an expert assistant with the Municipal Court in Sarajevo even though, at the time he applied for the job, he hadn’t taken the bar exam — one of the position’s key requirements.
There is no guarantee that people sentenced to prison will ever serve any time. Some of the guilty, including some officeholders, have figured out how to postpone lock up for years. Others don’t ever go in.
Because original documents are missing from the case file of Čović and the Lijanovićies, legal proceedings could be endangered, according to the Prosecutor’s Office of Sarajevo Canton.
The FBiH government has invested 1.27 million KM in the “Residence of Rest” in Trpanj, an exclusive guesthouse on the Croatian Adriatic intended for politicians and civil servants. Taxpayers are paying increasing amounts for maintenance, which the government-owned company that runs the residence is hiding.
Twenty-five officeholders and government officials found guilty of abuse of office have been pardoned over the past five years. Some of them managed to avoid prison, while criminal records were erased for others. Some of the pardoned continue to work for public companies or serve in office.
Six big political parties in BiH have taken donations from companies doing business with the government, even though this is prohibited by the state Law on Financing Political Parties.
Eight BiH Parliamentary Assembly members and their drivers collected nearly 305,000 KM to cover the cost of transport by personal vehicles over two years. Due to poor oversight some used the perk even though they did not qualify for it.
Political parties have been able to use or buy state buildings and profit from renting the space because of minimal regulation of BiH property.
While government offices are left empty or given over to free use by private businesses, authorities are spending millions of KM a year on rent. The FBiH government in Mostar rents space from the Islamic Community and businessmen connected to the ruling political parties, even though the government’s own offices are sitting empty.
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