TI BiH: There can be no effective fight against corruption without whistleblower protection

The data show that citizens reporting corruption still place more trust in civil society organizations than in formal institutional protection mechanisms, Transparency International said.

The data were presented during a roundtable discussion titled ''Strengthening the Framework and Practices for Whistleblower Protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina'', organized to mark World Whistleblowers Day.

It was emphasized that whistleblower reports are one of the most important ways to uncover corruption, abuse of office, and other irregularities. However, unclear, inconsistent, and in some cases nonexistent protection mechanisms, fear of retaliation and job loss, distrust in institutions, and the belief that reports do not lead to sanctions continue to discourage citizens from reporting corruption.

At the state level, the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight Against Corruption received six requests for protected whistleblower status over four years, while protected status was granted in only one case.

In the Brcko District, seven requests were recorded and all were approved, while in the Republika Srpska, four court proceedings related to whistleblower protection were recorded.

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, except for Sarajevo Canton, still does not have a law specifically regulating whistleblower protection, although draft legislation has gone through public consultation and parliamentary procedures in both houses of the FBiH Parliament. It was later returned to the FBiH Ministry of Justice for revisions and final proposal drafting.

At the same time, through its Free Legal Aid Center for Combating Corruption, Transparency International BiH received 133 whistleblower reports during the same period. In 2025 alone, the organization received 35 reports, a significant increase compared to 21 reports in 2024.

This number exceeds the total number of requests received by relevant institutions in 2025, further confirming that citizens reporting corruption place more trust in civil society organizations than in official protection mechanisms.

During the roundtable, a regional report titled 'Protected or Exposed? Whistleblower Protection in the Western Balkans: Progress and Challenges' was also presented. The report showed that adopting laws alone is not enough without effective implementation.

Findings from Western Balkan countries indicate that some systems still apply the standard of 'good faith' instead of ''reasonable belief that the information is true'', while practice shows that even formally recognized whistleblower status often does not prevent retaliation.

An additional problem is the weak institutional response to corruption. According to Transparency International BiH’s findings for 2025, only 1.4 percent of all indictments filed that year were related to corruption.

Out of 144 indictments for corruption-related criminal offenses, only five involved high-level corruption, specifically abuse of office by senior officials resulting in multimillion-euro gains at the expense of the state.

Of 28 court rulings in high-level corruption cases, 17 were convictions, while nearly 40 percent resulted in acquittals or dismissals.

These indicators further affect public trust and send a message to potential whistleblowers that reporting corruption often carries greater risk for the person reporting it than for those committing corruption.

Transparency International BiH warned that whistleblowers in Bosnia and Herzegovina remain exposed to pressure, retaliation, and professional consequences, while institutions fail to provide sufficiently fast and effective protection.

As a result, many people choose not to report corruption at all, or they turn to non-governmental organizations instead of state institutions.

Transparency International stressed that without whistleblower protection, there can be no effective fight against corruption.