A new database assembled by investigative reporters details the property holdings of many politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, noting a steady increase in holdings and bank accounts, even for those who acquired many properties.

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN), a Sarajevo-based news agency, has investigated the holdings of 160 politicians for the past nine months. A database containing all of their findings on the wages, movable and immovable property, biographies and other assets has been published.

Access to the politicians’ information became more difficult after the Central Election Commission withdrew data on politicians’ assets from its web page in 2012 in the wake of a Court of BiH’s ruling protecting personal data.

CIN reporters have collected more than 2,700 documents, including “all asset cards from the previous and current election year, land records, court rulings, indictments and other official documents,” said CIN’s editor-in-chief Renata Radić-Dragić. The reporters have also conducted more than 100 interviews, although a number of politicians refused to talk to CIN reporters.

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