Bosnian NGO Issues Zero Banknote in Corruption Fight

A zero marks note | Photo by Balkan Insight

The inscription on the zero mark note reads: "I promise that I will never offer or receive bribes."

Banknotes resembling the Bosnian currency (convertible mark) were promoted in Sarajevo on Wednesday in a street action entitle “I give zero marks for bribes".

The anti-corruption fantasy money was issued to Sarajevans by Bosnia's Centre for Responsible Democracy, an NGO which maintains that illegal demands by police, medical stuff and bureaucrats are deeply ingrained in Bosnian society and strong action is needed to root out the practice.

The NGO, which recently started Bosnia's secure "whistle-blower" site, www.uzbunjivaci.ba, warned that bribery remains common in many public institutions.

“Thereby we wanted to show citizens how they should react towards those who give and take bribes: by simply giving them nothing," says Bojan Bajic, the coordinator of the initiative for the protection of whistle-blowers in Bosnia, Uzbunjivaci.

The task of Bosnia's first whistle-blower NGO is to investigate the abuse of official positions in government, private and public companies and other institutions.

"There is no law to protect whistle-blowers in Bosnia, and I firmly believe that the secure channel through which people can report corruption, provided on our website, will deliver results in terms of revealing corruption inside state institutions," Bajic told Balkan Insight.

The idea of the "zero" banknote came from a similar action in India in 2007, where zero rupee notes were made to resemble the regular 50 rupee banknote, as part of a campaign to cut down on the giving or taking of bribes.