Author(s): Erdin Halimić,Ajla Popović,Haris Vejzović,Dajana Bašić,Aleksandar Maletić / Language(s): English
Dear readers, It is our pleasure to present to you the second part of the report on the transparency and anti-corruption capacities of the security sector institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the public procurement processes for 2020 and 2021. The presentation in question represents part of the activities carried out within the project "Future Professionals for More Transparent Public Procurement - TRANSPIRE", which was financed by a generous grant from the Department of State of the United States of America through the Small Grants Program of the Democratic Commission. The Centre for Security Studies, as the implementer of the project, is particularly proud of the fact that the report is a product of the synergy of joint efforts of students from various universities and faculties in BiH and practitioners of investigative journalism. With such an approach, we contributed to the realization of the general goal of the project, in the light of improving and expanding the process of public procurement in the security sector, and raising the awareness and knowledge of students about public procurement and the risks of corruption. Despite the challenge for our project team to interest the young population, bring this complex topic to closer to them and break the paradigm that these tasks should be dealt with exclusively by institutions, we are particularly proud of the fact of the successful development of the concept of civic responsibility in controlling the good management of our shared financial resources. As a "think tank" organization, it is always a pleasure to state that methodology, which was developed, tested and implemented during of the project "Building Integrity and Strengthening Anti-Corruption Practices in the Security Sector - ACroSS", is functioning and the students easily mastered it and improved it in certain segments. We hope that this scientific and professional presentation of the situation in the field of public procurement will primarily serve the institutions of the BiH security sector to reach the highest democratic standards in this area of their work, but also meet the interest of the wider interested public. It should be noted that the report also covers the critical period of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore, despite the identified fields that require serious improvements, the fact that institutions in such circumstances were committed to maintaining a certain degree of transparency in public procurement is encouraging - at least when viewed through the prism of our methodology. And in this way, we encourage the institutions of the security sector to make additional efforts and engagement, because they, by the nature of their very sensitive work, must be an example to other authorities. Nontransparency or insufficient transparency in certain aspects of organizational work cannot lead to the goal of zero tolerance for corruption, which we strive for as part of efforts to reduce and eradicate this global scourge from our society. The Centre for Security Studies would like to kindly thank all the institutions of the security sector in BiH who, by providing data and information, contributed to the creation of this report. Finally, we owe a special thank you to our donor for supporting the "TRANSPIRE" project, as well as for all previous efforts to establish a more democratic and fair society for all citizens of BiH.
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