Brcko District Supervisor, Dr. Raffi Gregorian, issued today a Supervisory Order extending temporarily the mandate of the Independent Board for Selection and Review of Work of the Chief of Police and also mandating the Brcko District Assembly to amend the Law on Police.
The current members of the Independent Board will continue to perform all duties and responsibilities as members of the Independent Board, until the Brcko District Assembly appoints new members of the Board in line with amendments to the Law on Police that need to be adopted by 30 April 2011, and which need to make clear that serving police officials in any jurisdiction in Bosnia and Herzegovina can not be members of the Independent Board.
Reforms in the police sector have continued throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina since the earlier adoption by Brcko District of the Law on Police. These reforms aim to eliminate political or internal police pressure from the work of Independent Boards by excluding serving police officials from being members of such boards. As a consequence of these reforms, the Law on Police of Brcko District as it currently stands and as previously carried out with respect to the Independent Board has been on this point subject to misinterpretation during the recent selection process and therefore needs to be corrected and the process re-started.
Supervisor Gregorian has consulted with the European Union Police Mission, the Mayor, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and the Heads of Caucuses in the Brcko District Assembly and it was decided to resolve the issue by way of a Supervisory Order with the aim of eliminating any legal uncertainty or ambiguity about the criteria for the membership of a new Independent Board, which will be appointed by regular procedure following adoption of the necessary amendments.