Today’s signing marks a significant step in BiH’s progress fighting corruption. Corruption is a cancer on democracy. It causes significant pain to citizens and blocks BiH’s European aspirations. There is too little interest from BiH’s governments to address corruption, and so I applaud Acting Prime Minister Basić and his government for committing to create a new Anti-Corruption Office in Zenica-Doboj Canton.
Our assistance will copy the model of Kanton Sarajevo’s Anti-Corruption Office, led by Dr. Erduan Kafedžić. U.S. assistance will be conditioned on political support from the government to give the office the freedom to effectively identify and prevent corruption, together with police and cantonal prosecutors.