House of Peoples BiH adopts Bill on Restricting Disposal of Assets

All 14 delegates present voted in favour of the bill.

The adoption of this legislation represents one of the conditions for Bosnia to avoid being placed on the MONEYVAL grey list.

However, during the debate, several delegates pointed out that, in addition to passing this bill, a number of other requirements still need to be fulfilled.

Objections were also raised due to the absence of a representative of the proposer at the sitting. In this instance, it was the Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Deputy Minister Ivica Bošnjak, who is currently performing the ministerial duties.

The Speaker of the House of Peoples, Kemal Ademovic, stated that Deputy Minister of Security Ivica Bosnjak, whose ministry prepared the legislation, had informed them that he would not attend the sitting as he was outside Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“According to my information, the ministry’s secretary is also abroad. It was indicated that adviser Vedran Knezovis and Assistant Minister for Human Resources and General Financial Affairs Jelena Savic would attend. However, when I called for them, no one confirmed their presence, and I had no record that they were in attendance or able to speak authoritatively on this bill,” Ademovic explained.

Speaking about the legislation, Ademovic noted that the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the formal proposer, while the Ministry of Security prepared this bill, and the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina prepared another piece of legislation related to the management and disposal of illegally acquired assets.

He added that the Minister of Justice, Davor Bunoza, was present at today’s sitting.

“However, that other bill has stalled at the Council of Ministers and has not been forwarded to the Parliamentary Assembly. In addition, another requirement stemming from the MONEYVAL recommendations is the establishment of a registry at the level of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This does not involve legislation, but rather the creation of a register of beneficial owners of legal entities. According to my information, work on this has not yet even commenced,” Ademovic said.

He added that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will meet tomorrow and will specifically review progress in meeting MONEYVAL recommendations in Bosnia.