2009 Assessment

This peer-reviewed country report includes:

Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.

Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.

Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.

The backlog of cases in Bosnia and Herzegovina's courts has negatively impacted the efficiency of the government's network of anti-corruption agencies including the independent redress mechanisms for the police and the civil service. Political concerns curb the independence of many government agencies including the newly decentralized ombudsman office, the supreme audit institution, and the police. Low levels of political will have also stalled the development of a central anti-corruption agency, which was formally established in April 2009. A lack of conflicts of interest regulations for elected officials means that asset disclosures are not audited in any branch of government. While there are some requirements for monitoring political campaign contributions, auditing of contributions to political candidates remains a "major challenge." Censorship and manipulation of the media is a problem in BiH where "almost all media" is controlled by government or "under the control of criminal groups." There are no whistle-blower protection laws; however, the Bosnia Journalists Association has successfully set up its own Free Media Helpline.