Bosnia-Herzegovina’s GRECO report – moving forward carefully
On February 14 Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Fifth Evaluation GRECO Report was published. As we noted last week, GRECO also published Bulgaria’s evaluation report (See BAJIMC Bulgaria review). Similar to the Bulgaria situation there is both good and bad. If it is similar, why are we looking at it today? The answer is that we should take even greater care when addressing the issues in this report as Bosnia-Herzegovina is moving forward towards EU accession.
The distinction between candidacy and membership should be more pronounced and should be considered seriously by the candidate country. There are troublesome areas within the report. As in Bulgaria, the persons with top executive functions are falling short, by not meeting the recommendations. These failings send a signal that the leading government authorities cannot meet the recommendations though there are systems available from many of the candidate states and member states. Again and again, though there are significant differences between countries, lack of enthusiasm at the top is important indicator of the seriousness of a country’s commitment to moving forward on anti-corruption reforms.
What can Bosnia-Herzegovina do to show genuine forward movement on anti-corruption? Again, it is as easy as saying to lose weight, eat less, exercise more. In this case, as GRECO notes they are moving forward, they have a strategy, and they have made some movement. But as is the case in both GRECO reports and strategies, the reality is that anti-corruption is viewed like homework, it gets done but is not considered important. Again, donors and CSOs and ultimately the citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina need to continue to pressure the government. The importance is that a less corrupt government provides better services as well as more financially realistic long-term investment opportunities by both internal and external businesses.
Links:
https://rm.coe.int/fifth-evaluation-round-preventing-corruption-and-promoting-integrity-i/1680b42e9d