Jasenko Tufekčić, a delegate in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and a deputy in the Canton 10 Assembly, was sentenced to eight months in prison for abusing transportation allowance worth over BAM 35,000. He pleaded guilty today at the Sarajevo Municipal Court and returned the money earlier.
Five years ago, CIN journalists published a report about Tufekčić collecting travel allowance and per diem for his trips to Sarajevo, while providing false information in his travel orders. CIN’s story was a piece of the evidence the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office used to form the indictment against this FBiH delegate.
Tufekčić entered into a plea agreement with the Prosecution, which the Court approved.
He is accused of submitting 355 official travel orders from July 2011 to April 2017 in which he entered false information. He reported to have used his private car during these travels, while he owned neither a car nor a driving license.
“Although the accused was entitled to use the business vehicle of the House of Peoples, he declined it because in this case, he would not have the possibility to claim the travel costs, said the prosecutor.
CIN revealed that for two years, he had been stating in the travel orders the number plates of two vehicles, of which at least one has not matched the plates of the vehicle he used. He used the official car of the Party of Democratic Action from Livno.
Journalists also uncovered that in 2015 and 2016 Tufekčić’s schedule called for 89 days of work on duties, but he submitted nearly twice as many travel orders. In most cases, he would not spell out the reasons for coming to Sarajevo, but would say that he came “in the course of regular business”.
In late 2020, Jasenko Tufekčić was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence for unlawfully hiring a party colleague six years earlier, when he was Vice-Speaker of the Canton 10 Assembly.
