Members of the Federation Police Administration arrested Hermedin Zornić, President of the Management Board of the company Operator – Terminali Federacije, and Slaven Zeljko, a member of the Management Board.

They were arrested by order of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office (KS) for criminal offenses including abuse of position or authority and violations of equality principle in employment, as confirmed by the Prosecutor’s Office.

“They are suspected of illegally employing at least 15 people at the company Operator – Terminali Federacije during 2022 without issuing a public job announcement or following proper procedures.  Most of the employees did not meet the qualifications for the positions they were assigned to”, stated the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office.

In 2014, Hermedin Zornić was appointed acting president of the Board of Operator – Terminali Federacije. That same year, he unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly elections.

Slaven Zeljko was appointed acting member of the Management Board in 2018, coming from his previous role as an adviser to his HDZ BiH party colleague Lidija Bradara, who was then the chairwoman of the House of Peoples of the Federation Parliament.

Back in 2017, CIN reported that Bradara had illegally appointed five advisers, including Zeljko, who did not meet the legal requirements for the position.  Eleven months earlier, Zeljko had advised Bradara’s predecessor, Tomislav Martinović, another party colleague, without having any seniority. Upon becoming Speaker of the House of Peoples, Bradara appointed Zeljko as her adviser for relations with the international community and the non-governmental sector in January 2015, even though he still did not have the required five years of work experience for the job.

Before working in the House of Peoples, Zeljko was the president of the HDZ BiH Youth, president of the Mostar City Committee, and a member of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton County Committee and the Presidency of HDZ BiH.  In the 2022 General Elections, he led the party’s list for the HNK Assembly.

At the time of his appointment to the position at the Operator – Terminali in 2018, Zeljko’s experience outside of his party work was limited to serving as an adviser in the Federation House of Peoples.