SIPA

During the past few days, the State Investigation and protection Agency (SIPA) has been publically criticised on several occasions for not acting during the protests held in the Federation of BH on 7 February 2014 and attack on the Presidency of BH building. With the aim to inform the public about this matter objectively and accurately, we hereby inform you about the following:

Pursuant to the valid legislation, the protection of public peace and order in the territory of the FBH is within the exclusive competence of Cantonal Ministries of Interior and Brčko District Police, and in this case of the Canton Sarajevo Ministry of Interior and Federal Police Administration (FPA).

Protection of the Presidency of BH building, where members of the Presidency , President of the Federation BH and two Vice-Presidents are located, falls within the exclusive competence of the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies of BH (members of the Presidency) and FPA (President of the Federation and Vice-Presidents), which are required, in line with the legislation, to provide physical and technical protection of these individuals, according at their place of residence, work and on the move. The fact supporting these claims is that FPA formed crisis headquarters on 6 February 2014, which confirms that Federal Ministry of Interior and Cantonal MoIs are exclusively responsible for public peace and order in FBH and their task was to prevent potential unlawful activities of citizens during the protests and property damages.
After the establishment of the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies in BH (Directorate) all powers referring to physical and technical protection of people, buildings and other property at the state level were transferred to the competence of this institution, including the building of the Presidency of BH. In line with the Decision on Transfer of Work, Premises, Equipment and Staff between the Ministry of Security BH, State Investigation and Protection Agency and Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies BH” (“Official Gazette BH” No. 94 dated 15 November 2010) by the Council of Ministers of BH, the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies of BH took over human and material resources from SIPA in a segment referring to organising and implementing physical and technical protection of persons and buildings of BH authorities and diplomatic and consular missions, which are protected separately. The deadline for the finalisation of activities on taking over work, buildings and personnel, as well as the official handover was on 31 December 2010. On 1 January 2011, the Directorate started independent work within its competence, i.e. activities on protection of persons and buildings, including the building of the Presidency BH. We would like emphasise that at the time 758 members of staff from SIPA were transferred to the Directorate, 743 of which were police officials.

We would like to point out that in accordance with prescribed competence, members of the Directorate also protect the building of the State Investigation and Protection Agency in Istočno Sarajevo and Regional Offices of SIPA in Sarajevo, Mostar, Tuzla and Banja Luka, since this falls within the exclusive competence of this institution.

Based on the aforementioned, it is clear that after the establishment of the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies of BH, SIPA does not have any legislative competence for action in this domain. Pursuant to the Law on the State Investigation and Protection Agency, work within SIPA’s competence covers: prevention, detection and investigation of criminal offences of organised crime, terrorism, war crimes, trafficking in human beings and other criminal offences against humanity and values protected by international law, as well as serious financial crime and witness protection, which we have had the opportunity to demonstrate to the public in numerous operations by SIPA in combating organised crime. One such operation was carried out upon an order by the Court BH during the protest held in Zenica-Doboj Canton, for which SIPA received many commendations from the public.

Pursuant to the Law on SIPA, the Special Support Unit of SIPA provides support exclusively for the organisational units of SIPA in carrying out measures and activities from its competence, providing additional police tactics, equipment and staff and performs the most demanding and complex tactical, operational and technical activities, also applying police authorities in high-risk situations. The purpose of this Unit is not to control masses and riots, and their members are not equipped and trained for this.
Immediately after information about protests of the citizens in the Federation of BH and material consequences, received by SIPA, Director of SIPA issued an order on engagement of all intelligence capacities, with the aim of collecting relevant information and their timely delivery to relevant police authorities in BH.
With reference to statements for media, made by Dragan Lukač, Director of the Federal Police Administration, who qualified reports on perpetrated criminal offence, submitted against him by SIPA to the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office, as a “special war”, for the purpose of objective and accurate information for the public, we would like to point out that these reports refer to abuse of office or authority. Specifically, they refer to unlawful withdrawal of funds from the budget of the Federation BH based on reimbursements not in the framework of salaries, for the reimbursement of accommodation and overhead expenses. According to the amount of the reimbursement he was receiving unlawfully, Mr Lukač placed himself in the category of Ministers in the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other report also refers to the abuse of position or authority because of detected unlawful activities referring to the years of service of Mr Lukač, namely the unlawful deletion of years of service.

We can classify the final aim of the unfounded attacks on SIPA as an attempt to transfer the responsibility and failure to protect the property, as well as omissions of the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies of BH and FPA to other agencies, specifically to the Management of SIPA, and thereby divert the attention from ongoing proceedings against Mr Lukač. We would also like to point out that the reports against Mr Lukač are not the result of SIPA’s operational activities and that this Agency did not initiate the investigation. It was initiated upon a report by high ranking police officials of FPA against Mr Lukač, based on which SIPA, acting upon orders by the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior, has been conducting a several months long investigation, which has already resulted in the submission of the mentioned reports on 23 December 2013. This investigation is still ongoing and the public will be duly informed about its outcomes.

We would like to remind the BH public, which have been subjected to misinformation, that the competence of SIPA and its fundamental mission is an efficient suppression of organised crime, corruption, serious financial crime and terrorism, detection and investigation of war crimes and witness protection.

SIPA operates exclusively on professional grounds, not representing, protecting or undermining interests of any political party, registered organisation or association of constitutive or other people in BH. In this context, we dismiss all political assessments and evaluations by police officials with no grounds in the law.
In the framework of its competence, this Agency takes all required measures and activities with the aim to protect all citizens in BH, and improve their sense of security and confidence in the security system.