Integrity Watch BiH exposes billion-mark procurement links to political donors

Data from the "Integrity Watch BiH" platform indicates that 19.8% of elected officials who own private companies have secured government tenders. This figure rises to 36.4% among officials elected in 2022, suggesting a worsening systemic conflict of interest.

A prominent example involves Sevlid Hurtic, the Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of BiH. Despite a TI BiH complaint regarding his private company receiving multimillion-mark contracts, it took the Commission for Deciding on Conflicts of Interest two years to issue a sanction. During that period, the company continued to participate in public procurement through other legal entities.

Analysis of 930,000 procedures shows that companies owned by elected officials received 2,450 contracts in a single year. Notably, 76.9% of these tenders were concluded via direct agreements, bypassing competitive bidding. While companies receiving tenders account for 10% of reported party donations, TI BiH notes that parties frequently underreport total contributions.

TI BiH emphasizes that these figures likely represent a minimum, as data is limited to asset declarations of elected officials and does not track beneficial ownership hidden through third parties. The organization describes these findings as evidence of "captured institutions," where business success depends on political connections. TI BiH urges the media and public to use the Integrity Watch tool to track these corrupt patterns that continue to undermine the national budget.