Anti-corruption and Quality Management Office of the Sarajevo Canton filed five criminal charges against officials who failed to declare their assets, Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to CIN.
Among these five are the current and former mayors of Sarajevo municipalities Trnovo, Centar and Novo Sarajevo – Ibro Berilo, Nedžad Ajnadžić, and Nedžad Koldžo. The charges resulted from the checks of their property carried out by the Anticorruption and Quality Management Office of Sarajevo Canton, prompted by the 2020 CIN story exposing municipal officials who failed to declare all the assets owned by them, their wives, children, and parents.
Checks showed that Ibro Berilo, the mayor of Trnovo, failed to declare BAM 142,000 in two bank accounts, while Nedžad Ajnadžić, until recently, mayor of the Municipality Centar, omitted to declare shares in several companies, worth around BAM 200,000. CIN reporters previously exposed Ajnadžić for not declaring a two-bedroom apartment in Šip, owned by his wife.
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She got the apartment from her 84-year-old mother, who, according to documents, bought it for BAM 128,500. Ajnadžić’s mother-in-law bought the apartment from the company “BooC”, which was founded by veterans’ organizations of the Municipality of Centar.
In an interview with CIN reporters at the time, Ajnadžić first claimed not have known how his mother-in-law bought the apartment, only to later recalled that his wife co-financed the investment. He refused to answer if she borrowed from a bank to buy the apartment, saying “Don’t ask me about it, just write what I’m telling you.”
Trnovo Mayor failed to declare a two-bedroom apartment in Ilidža owned by his son Mirzet, while Novo Sarajevo mayor, Nedžad Koldžo, forgot to mention the apartment owned by his daughter Nizama and her spouse.
Cantonal Sarajevo Officials are required to declare all their assets, revenue, and gifts, as well as assets and property of their close family members to the Office. Unlike asset declarations submitted by elected officials to the Central Election Commission, asset declarations submitted to the Office are checked.
The Office is the first institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) that checks the accuracy of the reported information and is required under the law to press charges against those who failed to provide accurate information on their assets.
