Ibrahim Mujić, one of advisers to the mayor of Velika Kladuša has been convicted, pending appeal, of abuse of office.

Ibrahim Mujić lives and works in Croatia. He was convicted by a court in Velika Kladuša in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nevertheless, he visits occasionally the town to advise the mayor Fikret Abdić (Photo: CIN)

By the Center for Investigative Reporting

On April 15, the Cantonal Court in Bihać sentenced Ibrahim Mujić to 27 months in prison, pending appeal, because he abused authority in 2008, in the capacity of professor and the head of a project at the Biotechnological Department of Bihać University, by collecting 54,000 KM for his personal gain.

According to the verdict, Mujić must return the money and will be prohibited from serving as professor or in another official capacity at the school or some other public institution in the following two years.

He is one of five advisors to the mayor of Velika Kladuša, Fikret Abdić a.k.a. Babo (daddy). The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) in Sarajevo published a story about them in 2018 because they could’ve been in a conflict of interest. They worked simultaneously for the municipality and as the heads of public companies or associations getting more than 10,000 KM a year from the budget.

Mujić is also president of the Assembly of the Association for the Protection of Unemployed Shareholders of Agrokomerc. In the past two years, mayor Abdić gave it 450,000 KM from the municipal purse.

The 2019 budget which Abdić proposed for vote in the beginning of April planned another 200,000 KM. Just like the previous years, the association is only accountable to the mayor for its handling of the money.

According to a Resolution on the execution of budget in 2019, money from “a current transfer to ‘the Association for the Protection of Unemployed Shareholders of Agrokomerc’ shall be used in accordance with the mayor’s directives.

As CIN wrote earlier, Mujić now lives and works in Croatia with occasional visits to Velika Kladuša to advise the mayor. He told CIN that he volunteers for Abdić’s office and the Association.

According to the Federation of BiH Law on Conflict of Interest, advisors are not allowed to simultaneously work for the municipality and as the heads of public companies or associations getting more than 10,000 KM a year from the budget. However, over the past six years, no institution has been charged with implementing the Law in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH).