OŠAP-GAĆANOVIĆ: BEĆIROVIĆ ATTEMPTING TO SHIELD COMMISSION OFFICIALS FROM CRIMINAL LIABILITY

BANJA LUKA, JULY 2 /SRNA/ – Member of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments from Republika Srpska, Anđelina Ošap-Gaćanović, said that one of the motives behind the latest decision by Presidency of BiH Chairperson Denis Bećirović regarding the Commission was to amnesty certain officials of that institution from criminal responsibility.

Ošap-Gaćanović stated that proposals by Bećirović and Željko Komšić for domestic members of the Commission slipped through unnoticed. "Even in that unlawfully adopted decision from January, it states that the mandate of current members ends when a new composition of the Commission is appointed. So, not four members. That decision specifically provides for two foreign members, two members from the Federation, and one from Republika Srpska. Komšić's proposal is the current Commission member Zoran Mikulić, who is under investigation. He is currently under proceedings by the Anti-Corruption Agency, specifically the Conflict of Interest Commission, because he holds two public functions. He is a representative in the Parliament of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and, through the Commission, can influence mechanisms for approving or blocking and favoring certain property-related proposals adopted in that assembly," she pointed out. She assessed that Bećirović's proposal is also very interesting, explaining that it concerns a Commission official who is currently under investigation by SIPA on the order of the Prosecutor's Office, over alleged abuses of office, use of official seals, false representation, issuing statements in the name of the Commission, initiating administrative procedures without Commission decisions, launching internal competitions to appoint a favored associate to a managerial post and misuse of financial mechanisms and budget management. "While I, as a member of the Commission from Republika Srpska, have been completely denied access to protocol, information is being issued in my name, written, stamped and signed in my name. Therefore, at the order of the Prosecutor's Office, these activities are under investigation, as well as those of the other member, who is Komšić's proposal, due to activities that took place within the Commission," Ošap-Gaćanović emphasized in a statement to RTRS. She added that the Serb member of the Presidency Željka Cvijanović, upon learning about these candidates, warned about them during the session and said they should, at minimum, be suspended or halted. "However, they even ended up as proposals, and I assume this is some kind of attempt by Bećirović to amnesty this official from responsibility for various abuses that took place in the Commission," Ošap-Gaćanović stressed.