Over 2,500 Citizens Reported Cases of Corruption and Abuse of Office

The TI B&H Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre received more that 2,500 reports on cases of corruption and abuse of office. The high number speaks of the great presence of administrative corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina and of large-scale organized abuses in all levels of Government. This was reported yesterday by Transparency International B&H, at the press conference held in Sarajevo. TIB&H is an international Ngo that has implemented the “Anti-Corruption Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre” project since February of this year. Presenting the Centre’s Activity Report for the period August-October 2004, Srdjan Blagovcanin, the Spokesperson of Transparency International in B&H, called on the competent prosecution offices to start investigations on the basis of the report that lists many cases of violations of the Law in the public sector and abuse of budgetary funds. So far, the Centre has submitted six cases of corruption to the competent prosecution offices – three on charges of bribery against officials of inspection and control services, one for corruption at a higher education institution, and two for offences in the work of public enterprises. For all six cases, orders were issued to start investigations. Of the 2,500 reports submitted by the citizens, the majority refers to illegal activities in the state administration institutions, especially the work of market, labour and construction inspectorates. The citizens were able to file their reports to the Centre through the special phone-line 0800 55555. The citizens contact the Transparency International offices in Banja Luka and Sarajevo, or use the website of TI B&H.

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