Husein Nanić, the former director of the Police Support Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and his deputy Miše Ćavar misused official vehicles for personal travel.
Over eight years, they covered nearly 300,000 kilometers in official cars, traveling to their hometowns in Bužim and Tomislavgrad, despite not being entitled to do so. They also used official vehicles on weekends, holidays, and during annual leave.
They justified these trips with travel orders containing incorrect information. The costs for fuel, tolls, and maintenance have cost the citizens of BiH over 111,000 BAM.
Nanić and Ćavar had accommodation provided close to their workplaces in Sarajevo, but over the course of eight years, they received around 40,000 BAM in allowances for living-away-from-home, which are typically paid to officials for living away from their place of residence.
Journalists from the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) revealed that Nanić used an official car for personal trips outside BiH during his vacation, without a travel order.
Nanić and Ćavar only refrained from using these vehicles when traveling to trade shows and conferences in Las Vegas, New Zealand, China, Qatar, Singapore, Peru, and other attractive destinations.
While they spent over 100,000 BAM from the budget on these trips, the current Director of the Agency, Enver Hadžiahmetović (from the Party of the People and Justice – NIP), claims that these trips brought no benefit to the Agency: “These were just tourist trips…”
No Car Runs Like A Government Car
The Bosnia and Herzegovina Police Support Agency is a bureaucratic institution where nearly all tasks – the most important of which is the procurement of police equipment and weapons – are handled during standard working hours from eight to four. Since all state-level agencies have the authority to set their own internal rules, Nanić and Ćavar allowed themselves to use official vehicles around the clock.
According to the Rulebook on the Terms of Procurement and the Use of Official Vehicles in BiH Institutions, cars were supposed to be used strictly for official purposes. However, Nanić and Ćavar reportedly justified most of the miles driven as being for “family visits”.
By analyzing documents from the Police Support Agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Autoceste Federacije BiH, Autopoutevi Republike Srpske, and Hrvatske autoceste, CIN journalists uncovered that the two individuals had also used official vehicles on weekends and during their vacations.
In April 2016, Nanić was appointed as the acting director as a member of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which allowed him to bypass the competitive selection process. Had he been appointed through the regular procedure as a chemical engineer, he would not have been eligible for this position. However, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at his request, revised the organizational framework to require qualifications in technical and natural sciences for the director position. This allowed Nanić to be appointed to the position through a competitive process in September 2017.
When the Council of Ministers held a competition for the director of the Agency in September 2021, he was the leading candidate. Meanwhile, the government changed, and the new Council of Ministers ignored the previous call for applications. They issued a new call, and this time, Enver Hadžiahmetović was the top candidate.
As a result, Nanić sued the state. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ultimately ruled to annul the public call that led to Hadžiahmetović’s appointment, ordering that Nanić be reinstated as director. The decision has not yet become final.
Before being appointed as acting director of the Agency, he had served for five years as the director of the Agency for Development of Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before that, he served three terms as a representative in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Parliament and one term in the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after which he received 54,895 BAM in severance pay.
During his seven years managing the Agency, Nanić used official vehicles for “family visits” at least 215 times. The costs of fuel, tolls, and maintenance were covered by the state. At the same time, he was receiving a living-away-from-home allowance but did not receive housing compensation, as he owned two apartments in Sarajevo.
From 2016, he had access to a Citroën C5, until mid-2017, when a Hyundai Tucson was purchased.
Since the mileage on Nanić’s official vehicles significantly increased, the records needed to be justified. Analysis shows that these records are full of inconsistencies and falsified data.
Although the longest distance from Sarajevo to Bužim is 377 kilometers, logs of the use of Nanić’s vehicle showed variations in this distance over the years, with some travel orders differing by up to 150 kilometers. For instance, the record from September 2016 indicates that the trip from Sarajevo to his hometown covered 423 kilometers, which is about fifty kilometers more than the actual distance of the longest route via Doboj.
A year after his appointment, the Police Support Agency purchased a new vehicle — a Hyundai Tucson SUV. The new SUV cost nearly 50,000 BAM, and by the time Nanić was dismissed in July 2023, it had already covered more than 234,000 kilometers.
For the last three years of his term, he consistently rounded the number of kilometers traveled from the capital to his hometown to 400 kilometers. The kilometers driven locally in Sarajevo were also rounded up to 50 kilometers nearly every working day, which is the maximum allowed mileage for using the vehicle within the workplace area.
Nanić used the new SUV during his annual leave in the second half of August 2019.
Data from Hrvatske autoceste reveals that the toll payment device (ENC) in his official car was recorded at toll booths on the highway from Karlovac to Zagreb six times between August 19 and 25. The vehicle’s log records indicate that during this period, he drove the route from Sarajevo to Bužim and back to Sarajevo.
Additionally, on the penultimate Friday of November 2019, Nanić traveled to Bužim, where, according to the recorded logs, the official SUV was parked over the weekend and on Monday — Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Statehood Day. However, Hrvatske autoceste recorded his official SUV at toll booths on the Karlovac-Zagreb highway on November 25.
The same thing happened the following month when the vehicle log recorded a trip from Sarajevo to Bužim. The Hrvatske autoceste record shows that his official vehicle was on the highway from Zagreb to Karlovac that day.
Nanić was involved in five traffic accidents with official vehicles, at least three of which he caused. The total damage amounted to 9,212 BAM. Nanić refused to give an interview to CIN.
Enver Hadžiahmetović, the current director of the Police Support Agency, has filed a criminal complaint against his predecessor, alleging that Nanić used the official vehicle for at least 180,000 kilometers more than needed for his official duties.
“These are significant amounts of money that harm the budget, and in my opinion, these actions are corrupt”, said Hadžiahmetović.
When asked by CIN journalists if he would file a criminal complaint against Ćavar as well, Hadžiahmetović responded:
“Well, look, Ćavar did the same things as Nanić. I hope a criminal complaint will be filed against him as well. His actions were on a smaller scale, but the modus operandi is the same.”
Constantly on the go to Tomislavgrad
Mišo Ćavar is a lawyer from Tomislavgrad who started his career in 1999 as an expert associate at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Canton 10. He then moved through the FBiH Intelligence-Security Service and other institutions to a position at the State Service for Foreigners’ Affairs, where he worked for 11 years. He was appointed deputy director of the Police Support Agency at the end of 2017.
By July 2023, he had collected 180,910 BAM in public funds for his salary, meal allowance, jubilee award, and vacation pay. His accommodation in Sarajevo was paid for with taxpayers’ money the entire time, and he also received a living-away-from-home allowance. This cost an additional 50,846 BAM.
Despite all the benefits, he extensively abused the official vehicle for trips to his hometown, both during work hours and on weekends and holidays.
According to the Policy on employee rights in BiH institutions, officials who use vehicles for commuting between work and home are not eligible for a living-away-from-home allowance or housing compensation.
By July 2024, he had traveled from Tomislavgrad to Sarajevo and back nearly 350 times.
Ćavar did not hide the fact that he used the official vehicle in his hometown as well. He would record “Tomislavgrad – local” in the log, which implies using the car within a 50-kilometer radius.
Autoceste FBiH almost always recorded his vehicle during work hours, most often on Fridays when he traveled to Tomislavgrad and on Mondays when he returned to Sarajevo.
During the second half of July 2019, he was on vacation. An analysis of the records showed that he used the official vehicle to travel to Tomislavgrad during that time, while the logbook recorded ‘Tomislavgrad – local.’
The maintenance of his official Citroën, and later Toyota, cost taxpayers 13,467 BAM.
He also refused to speak with reporters.
Pointless Business Trips
From October 2016 to May 2023, the Police Support Agency spent over 168,000 BAM on official trips for its employees outside of BiH, with Nanić and Ćavar accounting for 102,762 BAM of that amount.
Nanić was in Paris, Dubai, Berlin, Astana (Kazakhstan), Auckland (New Zealand), Lima (Peru), and Singapore, while Ćavar visited Moscow, Madrid, Brussels, and Amsterdam. They were together in Istanbul, Doha, Lianyungang, and Las Vegas. These are just some of the destinations they traveled to on behalf of the Agency.
The Agency received annual funds for travel expenses from the budget, based on requests from its leaders. The trips were intended for staff training, staying updated on new information and communication technologies, and learning about the latest developments in firearms and police equipment.
Instead of sending qualified Agency staff, most of the expert conferences and forums were attended by chemical engineer Nanić and lawyer Ćavar.
“It’s crucial for (IT professionals) to gain new knowledge and stay updated on trends and innovative technologies to ensure we can meet our legal responsibilities”, said Hadžiahmetović.
Nanić attended at least four conferences on information and telecommunications technologies: twice in Belgrade, and also in Hanover and Vienna, which cost over 7,000 BAM.
He traveled to Vienna in May 2017 using the official vehicle. According to Agency records, he received a 1,000 BAM advance before the trip and an additional 524 BAM in per diem. Expenses for fuel, tolls, parking, and taxi services totaled 711 BAM.
Additionally, he attended the fire safety and protection fairs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, twice. Since fire protection fairs are unrelated to the Agency’s responsibilities, director Hadžiahmetović suspected that Nanić’s trips to Dubai were actually to visit his daughter.
“We have nothing to do with fire protection”, Hadžiahmetović said. (…) His daughter lives in Dubai, so he went there with his wife”, said Hadžiahmetović.
Nanić also attended fire safety and protection fairs in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Istanbul, Turkey.
Hadžiahmetović claims that most of Nanić’s trips were unjustified because the events he attended were not relevant to the Police Support Agency’s responsibilities.
Nanić traveled to Lausanne in late 2018 using the official vehicle, where he attended a security forum, as stated in his travel order. Two weeks later, his wife Sabina posted a photo on social media of the Nanić couple in front of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
The Securite Lausanne 2018 was a forum showcasing trends and technologies in workplace safety, building security, and fire protection — topics that are not related to the Police Support Agency’s responsibilities.
The forum took place from November 14 to 16, so Nanić left the day after it ended, heading to Slovenia where he spent the night before continuing to Sarajevo the next day. The costs for accommodation and per diem amounted to approximately 1,900 BAM.
According to director Hadžiahmetović, “expenses had been incurred for transportation, accommodation, per diem, taxi services, tolls, SIM card purchases, and other related costs”.
Nanić also attended conferences related to peacekeeping training in Auckland, New Zealand, and Lima, Peru — events unrelated to the Agency’s responsibilities, which cost over 11,000 BAM.
“Business trips should be conducted in accordance with the law that grants the relevant authority. We are responsible for tenders, IT, and legal matters. How can I justify going to military equipment events or military missions, for example, in Lima? What does the UN mission have to do with the director of the Agency that deals with logistics”, said Hadžiahmetović.
Nanić’s deputy, Ćavar, attended telecommunications and information technology conferences in Moscow in 2018 and Amsterdam in 2023. Flights, accommodation, per diems, and other expenses for these trips amounted to 4,132 BAM.
When asked about the outcomes of these travels around the world, Director Hadžiahmetović remarked: “There were none.”
