TRADE INFLUENCE IN THE ZDK GOVERNMENT: Minister “invents” job for the wife of his advisor Kalušić

Former Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport of Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDK), Spahija Kozlić, in September 2022, introduced amendments to the pedagogical standards for high school, creating a completely new position, “collaborator for sports and recreational activities of students in the student dormitory”.

Although such a position did not exist at the Student Dormitory Nedžad Ibrišimović in Zenica before the minister’s decision, shortly after, Aida Kalušić, the wife of Kozlić’s then-advisor Arnel Kalušić, who is now an assistant minister, was employed in the role of sports collaborator.

After the decision of the ministry, namely Kozlić, to amend the pedagogical standards, the school board of the Public Institution Student Dormitory Nedžad Ibrišimović requested approval to advertise the vacant position – “collaborator for sports and recreational activities” – full-time.

The job announcement, according to sources from Valter, was published by coming out in the Mostar-based Večernji list on a Saturday.

THEY DON’T ANSWER QUESTIONS

How Aida Kalušić, the wife of Arnel Kalušić, the then-advisor of Kozlić for higher education and science, saw it that Saturday remains unknown. However, what is certain is that the Student Dormitory hired her for this newly formed position shortly after the pedagogical standards were amended.

Although it is not known when Kalušić transitioned from the position of an advisor to the role of an assistant minister, it is unequivocal that he held one of these positions during the employment of his wife.

Interestingly, Aida Kalušić started working in the newly established position in December 2022, shortly after her husband became a member of the Board of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in November of the same year.

Former Minister Spahija Kozlić did not respond to Valter’s questions about the origin of the need for creating a completely new position at the Student Dormitory Nedžad Ibrišimović and whether the business relationship between the minister and his advisor influenced it.

Our portal twice directed questions, in accordance with the Law on Freedom of Access to Information (ZOSPI), to the director of the Student Dormitory Nedžad Ibrišimović, Ermin Zukić, but Zukić’s responses never arrived, although it is a legal obligation of public institutions to provide them within 15 days.

We asked Zukić, among other things, about the need for creating a completely new position, “collaborator for sports and recreational activities”, on an indefinite basis, as well as the specific responsibilities of this collaborator in the Student Dormitory working full-time.

The silence of the former Minister Spahija Kozlić and the director of the Student Dormitory Ermin Zukić leaves room for suspicion and suggests that this position was established specifically for Aida Kalušić.

As stated on the page of this public institution, “The Student Dormitory Zenica is an institution of special social importance where education, accommodation, nutrition, cultural activities, physical recreation, and the satisfaction of other needs of high school students are carried out”.

The segment “physical recreation of students” sounds very serious and complex, and it is precisely the cantonal ministry responsible that has ensured this. In the structure of the tasks of the collaborator for sports activities, they have listed organizing students’ leisure time, working on projects to improve the operation of the student dormitory and the conditions for students’ stay, programming, realizing and analyzing students’ leisure time and recreational activities, collaboration with parents, sports associations, collectives, institutions, and sports authorities, developing professional and student-adapted educational work programs, and similar tasks.

Otherwise, a justified question could be raised about what the collaborator for sports activities does for eight hours every working day in an institution where sports are at the level of physical recreation, as described on the Student Dormitory’s website.

TRADE INFLUENCE AND CLIENTELISM

Regarding the employment of Aida Kalušić, Elmin Šabanović, a member of the Zenica-Doboj Canton Assembly, initiated an inspection in May of last year to investigate the Student Dormitory Nedžad Ibrišimović.

At the end of May, the inspection was conducted and determined that Aida Kalušić’s employment “was carried out based on a competition, with prior approval from the Ministry, and in accordance with applicable regulations”. However, the inspection did not address the fact that these regulations were amended immediately before her employment, nor did it address the question of the justification for creating a completely new position within the Dormitory.

The connection of the married couple Kalušić with the director of the Student Dormitory, Ermin Zukić, is evident on several grounds.

Arnel Kalušić and Ermin Zukić graduated from the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education in Sarajevo. In the summer of 2013, they were part of the commission for the development of the Sports Development Strategy in the Zenica-Doboj Canton. In the same month, they were appointed to the Commission responsible for proposing the spending program criteria for the allocation of funds from the current sports transfer, as determined by the Budget of the Zenica Municipality for 2013. Both are also listed as members of the Society of Physical Education Pedagogues of the Zenica Municipality.

Aida Kalušić is a coach in the Basketball Women’s Club Čelik BH Telecom, where Zukić’s daughter trains.

Interestingly, despite this club having a powerful sponsor (BH Telecom), it regularly benefits from budget transfers for sports handled by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport of Zenica-Doboj Canton, where the assistant minister is Arnel Kalušić. He previously worked in the same ministry but as an advisor to the minister.

Among the functions Kalušić performs, one significant role is being the current member of the Board of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also noteworthy that, at one point, he served as the team manager and a member of the Board of the Basketball Women’s Club Čelik. Some media even mention that Kalušić was part of the club’s Board in December 2022, at a time when he was already employed by the Ministry.

FUNDS FROM KALUŠIĆ’S MINISTRY TO HIS WIFE’S CLUB

Arnel Kalušić’s career has been on an upward trajectory, just like the budget funding for the Basketball Women’s Club Čelik BH Telecom, which has significantly increased in recent years. For example, in August 2021, the Zenica-Doboj Canton Government approved funds from the “sports transfer” for this club, amounting to around 9,700 BAM.

In 2022, budget allocations for the Basketball Women’s Club Čelik were considerably increased: they were granted approximately 11,440 BAM in May and 25,000 BAM in October.

In July of last year, the Zenica-Doboj Canton Government allocated just over 20,000 BAM for the Women’s Basketball Club Čelik BH Telecom, and with a new decision in November, the club was approved an additional 27,000 BAM.

Since 2013, there has been nobody in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to determine conflicts of interest. It is clear from numerous examples that there is no political will for it.

Damjan Ožegović, Senior Researcher and Legal Affairs Associate at Transparency International BiH, reminds us that Articles 14 and 15 of the Law on the Prevention of Conflicts of Interest in Government Bodies of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulate that CIK decides whether a situation, action, or behaviour constitutes a conflict of interest.

“But after the law was amended at the state level, CIK became incompetent for these actions at the level of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina because the amendments to the law envisage the Commission for Determining Conflicts of Interest. However, the Federation law has never been changed afterwards, nor has a new one been enacted, so at the federal level, it was never established who could determine conflicts of interest instead of CIK”, says Ožegović.

Valter sent several inquiries to Arnel Kalušić, including asking him whether he considers it a conflict of interest that he is an employee of the Ministry that provides budget funds to the Basketball Women’s Club Čelik BH Telecom, where his wife Aida is a coach.

He was also questioned about whether the Basketball Women’s Club Čelik BH Telecom had priority in scoring for budget transfers from the Ministry, and whether he is in a private and friendly relationship with the director of the Student Dormitory, Ermin Zukić, where his wife is employed.

We have not received a response to any of these questions from the current member of the Board of the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.