The second Steering Committee Meeting
The second Steering Committee Meeting within the EU funded Project "IPAK - Institutional Support to Anti-corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina", was held on May 15, 2019, at at Hotel Europe, Sarajevo.
Participants at the 2nd Steering Committee Meeting were:
- Nicolas BIZEL, Head of Operation Section for Justice and Home Affairs and Public Administration Reform, Delegation of the European Union
- Johannes HINTZEN, Programme Manager for Justice Reform and Security, Delegation of the European Union
- Zoran JAČEV, Team Leader of the Project Support to Implementing anti-corruption strategies in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Zlatko MINIĆ, Key Expert of the Project Support to Implementing anti-corruption strategies in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Hasim ŠABOTIĆ, Director of the Agency for the prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption
- Meliha OMERSPAHIĆ, President of the Anti-Corruption Team of Zenica-Doboj Canton
- Mirela TUZLAK, Member of the Corruption Prevention Team of the Tuzla Canton
- Šejla ŠARIĆ, Team Coordinator of the Working body of the Government of Una-Sana Canton for the Prevention of Corruption
- Jasmin GOGIĆ, Chief Inspector at the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA)
- Elmir PILAV, Team Coordinator of the Anti-Corruption Team in Bosnian - Podrinje Canton
- Berislav ŽIVKOVIĆ, President of the Team for Monitoring the Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan of the Posavina Canton
- Semir SOFTIĆ, Team Coordinator of the Anti-Corruption Team of the Central Bosnia Canton
- Dejan Đurović, spokesperson of the Judicial Commission, Judicial Commission of Brčko District BiH
- Sead LISAK, President of the Anti-Corruption Team of the Government of Federation of BiH
- Nedžib Delić, Head of the operating unit, PARCO
- Radoš DABETIĆ, Project Director on behalf of Evropska Konsalting Grupa LLC
- Una LAZIN, Office Manager, Project Support to Implementing anti-corruption strategies in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The meeting was opened and chaired by Mr. Bizel who welcomed the participants, and opened the second SCM with questions for discussion related to, firstly, the absence of some AC bodies at the meeting, and secondly the question related to the proposal of involvement of other observers like CSO-s, business sector etc., and proposed to invite OSCE to participate as well as an observer at the future meetings. Mr. Bizel passed the word to Mr. Šabotić, but before that, thanked the Project team for coordinating the approval of the Inception report, noticing that it wasn’t an easy task but has resulted with a good Report that has a real meaning and will serve everybody.
Mr. Šabotić thanked the participants for coming and continued with explaining the process of the adoption of the Inception report. Since there were no other comments to the IR, besides the comments of APIK, the Project and the EU have accepted the proposed amendments and have included them in the corrected IR which resulted with the adoption of the report by APIK and generally adoption of the IR. Printed version of the adopted Inception report has been delivered to all SC members at the meeting. Referring to the question of the absence of some of the AC bodies, Mr. Šabotić shared that APIK is not aware of the reasons for not participating, other than expired mandate of some of the bodies.
Mr. Jachev took the word and continued with the question of the absence of some of the AC's. What the Project can do is to contact the missing bodies again after this meeting and try to ensure their participation in the project activities. Related to comments on IR, Mr. Jachev shared with the participants how the process of agreement with the APIK went in and how comments and suggestions were included in IR.
Mr. Lisak shared his opinion that NGOS that are nominated for the group for the development of the new ACS and AP should be invited in SCM as well.
It was agreed to invite OSCE, Transparency international, Account and Infohouse as observers with a consultative role to the future SCM meetings.
Presentation of the Interim report of the Project for the period 15.02 - 14.05
Mr. Jachev shared the Interim report of the Project for the period 15.02-14.05 and all the activities that have been completed as well as all ongoing activities. A printed copy of the Interim report has been given to all participants at the meeting.
Presentation of the Working plan of the Project for the period 15.05 - 15.08
Mr. Jachev continued with the discussion about the Work plan for the next 3 months, presenting 5 activities foreseen by the IR. As said before, the first 3 months were dedicated mostly to collection of information and now is the time to pass to the next phase which besides different analyses includes trainings and conferences. Among the 3-4 events planned, there is one High level Conference planned for mid-June and it requires input from the SC members. There is also the question about the development of the new ACS.
It would ideally be that the development of the new Strategy involves people from other levels of the government that will have the leading role in the development of ACS at their level of the government. The Project will complete the analysis, provide recommendations for better monitoring of the implementation of ACS, provide recommendations for the development of the new ACS 2020-2024, as well as recommendation for the development of strategies at other levels of the government in BiH, which is a very responsible task and will require consultations with all AC bodies. And finally, as soon as APIK requests, the Project is ready to organize the 2 workshops for the development of the new ASC (which have been added to the activities of the Project and IR).
Discussion about the Working plan of the Project for the period 15.05 - 15.08
Mr. Jachev clarified the concept for the High Level Conference, which is briefly to gather the first people of all AC bodies from BiH, the first people of governments, assemblies, Prime ministers, High representatives, ambassadors and all the most important people from every level of government because without their decision to move towards a more decisive fight against corruption it's hard for something to happen. Also, what the bodies mention as shortcomings, lack of independence, resources, and lack of support, everything must be done to overcome these shortcomings and for which this planned conference can be utilized. The idea behind all this is that after this conference, there is a more determined will to support the fight corruption.
The proposed date for the High Level Conference is 13 June 2019 and the location is the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
Discussion on other issues related to the Project
The agreed and proposed provisional date for holding the next SC meeting is 11 September.
Mr. Bizel concluded the meeting with some thought’s related to the SC and opportunities that it could be used for. Mr. Bizel proposed, as example, to invite Canton Sarajevo to share their achievements, which could be used as good practise and encouragement to other AC bodies. Mr. Bizel thanked all participants for their contribution and repeated the importance of the adoption of the IR of the Project. Further, Mr. Bizel confirmed the awareness on the position that the AC bodies have in the system and the need to change what is possible in that regard, where the EU and the Project can make a contribution and concluded with the hope to have real successful reforms in this sector by the end of the Project implementation.