Bosnia to Toughen Law on Parties' Transparency

Bosnia's parliament will soon vote on a draft law to amend the current law on the financing of political parties, with the goal of increasing transparency.

The proposal should be submitted to parliament's House of Representatives at its next session on April 27, Lazar Prodanovic, an MP from the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, who participated in writing the draft, told BIRN on Wednesday.

"The draft will probably be approved by the end of April," Prodanovic said, adding that the goal would be for the law to take force before the start of the campaign for October's local elections.

The new law is designed to comply with the recommendations that the Group of States Against Corruption, GRECO, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body, adopted in 2013 to improve the transparency of Bosnian political parties.

According to the draft, Bosnian parties will not be able to finance themselves through bank loans and will have to introduce a system of financial audits.

Parties will have to publish annual financial reports of their activities on their websites, also listing revenues obtained from any subject connected in any way to them.

The new law increases penalties for parties that flout the law from 2,500 to 5,000 euros and introduces fines for individuals ranging between 100 and 1,000 euros.

It obliges the Central Electoral Commission - which is in charge of the financial audits of the parties - to report any irregularity to the state prosecution.

Although Prodanovic noted that "not all recommendations from GRECO have been implemented", he insisted that "this law will definitely improve the transparency of the political parties and monitor their expenses during political...