TI BiH demands a transparent process of developing the Law on Conflict of Interests

Banja Luka, October 8th 2009. – It is necessary to adequately define situations where there is conflict of interests and procedural rules for institution that implement the Law, as well as tighten the sanctions for persons violating the law, since former penal policy was inadequate and did not enable the prevention of conflict of interests

Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) welcomes the initiative and efforts in drafting the Law on Conflict of Interests, seeing it as a very important opportunity for improve the legal solutions, having in mind enormous previous problems in the implementation of the Law on Conflict of Interests

It is especially important to adequately define situations where there is conflict of interests and procedural rules for institutions implementing the Law. It is also necessary to tighten the sanctions for persons violating the law, since the former penal policy was inadequate and did not satisfy fundamental conditions that would enable a general prevention of conflict of interests

Having in mind that some key anti-corruption laws are in the parliamentary procedure, especially the Law on Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption, it is necessary to ensure consistency of the legal framework that regulates prevention and fight against corruption.

TI BiH will demand from relevant institutions to ensure transparency in the process of developing the Law on Conflict of Interests, through public debate and the inclusion of expert stakeholders in the process of its development. Bearing in mind that this is one of key anti-corruption laws in the country, whose previous application was not satisfactory, it is necessary to include all interest parties in the process of developing the Law, in order for the quality of proposed legal solutions to be as high as possible, and in order to ensure their consistent implementation.