CIN: Corruption Charges Not an Obstacle for a Political Career

CIN

26 September 2006

The voters in the Central Bosnia Canton (Srednjebosanski Kanton-SBK) could find themselves in a situation to entrust their votes in the elections this coming Sunday to several politicians that would sooner end in Court rather then in office.

Dragan Popovic, deputy to the SBK Public Prosecutor, confirmed it for the reporters of the Centre for Investigative Reporting CIN from Sarajevo that his department started the investigation against 21 former and current political figures from the Canton, suspected of corruption and abuse of office. The investigation was based on the findings of the FB&H Financial Police Report, submitted in the beginning of 2003.

The Report charges the officials of embezzling over 1.2 million KM from the Canton Budget, by charging per-diems for fictional business travel and buy-out of land used to build the detention unit that was never opened, having in mind that it is located right next to an elementary school.

The charges of abuse of office didn�t, however, bring about proper reaction. None of the 21 officials was cleared by the investigation and yet, they continued to perform their offices. Some even advanced to the highest offices of state. Nine of them are running for office in the October 1 Elections.

The political parties commented that the charges were nothing allarming, while Cantonal Public Prosecutor says that his office, in spite of the heavy workload, will bring up official charges by the end of the year. This case is another illustration of the sad fact that corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina still remains unpunished.