Belgrade,
14:26,
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Beta
Right now, Serbia is in between two evaluation. This first arrived at the end of September and is a strong C, while the second is due to arrive in several months from the Group of Countries Against Corruption, also known as GRECO, and concerns the efficiency of corruption-fighting mechanisms in the country.
The relatively good news is that Serbia's standing has improved by 11 places in the latest version of the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. The country's rating is 3.4 out of 10, up from 3.0 last year, which still indicates a high level of corruption. Serbia was ranked 79th on the 180-country list. It shared the spot with Georgia, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saudi Arabia. TI defines corruption as the abuse of public authority for private gain, and countries are evaluated on the 10-point scale, where 10 indicates zero corruption.
In the case of GRECO, a negative evaluation also means getting branded as "uncooperative". To avoid that, Serbia has to put GRECO's recommendations into effect over the next two months. Otherwise, it will become the second European country, together with Georgia, to fail to act on recommendations from the Council of Europe's corruption body.
Branislav Simonovic, a professor of criminology at the Kragujevac University Law School, believes that the biggest problem is that the Serbian system is what creates corruption. In his opinion, in order to eliminate the problem, the cabinet has to pass laws changing the entire system.
According to Simonovic, the cabinet needs to introduce practical measures to eliminate factors that are conducive to corruption, adding that the problem is simple: "Nothing has been done about this so far."
Rodoljub Sabic, the country's information commissioner, said a while back that new laws are obviously needed, but he also stressed the importance of recognizing that the authorities have been much more effective in producing new laws and other documents aimed at tackling corruption than producing any tangible effects.
"The contrast between legislative activity and reality is stark, so great that the question is rightly being asked whether the concept that these laws and documents are based on and are intended to express has merit," Sabic added.
Sabic went on to comment on the police and the courts, as well as GRECO recommendations. He added that new criminal proceedings legislation could be said to have ensured the switch to prosecutor-led investigations, regulated relations between the police and prosecutors, and taken steps to block suspect financial transactions.
"The problem is that the implementation of this law has been delayed," Sabic said, adding that GRECO also wants the country to adopt an action plan for enforcing the National Strategy of Fighting Corruption.
"This recommendation too has been implemented on paper. An action plan has been adopted, but the agency in charge of supervising its implementation was never founded. In addition, a commission staffed by representatives of several ministries established by the cabinet as a transitional solution never got the things it needed to operate, as a result of which it isn't," Sabic stressed.
Professor Simonovic says that a broad selection of measures need to be used to support every honest individual who is working in the system and is impossible to corrupt.
"Laws need to be passed to require every company to include in its internal regulations measures for combating corruption."
According to Simonovic, the police have introduced measures used throughout the world, such as stings, special investigators, and wiretaps.
"We see these techniques all over the world, but than can produce results only as part of a bigger system that includes preventive measures," he adds.
As for the police, these and other techniques introduced to help combat organized crime are, according to Police Director Milorad Veljovic, entirely in line with EU standards.
Commenting on the conclusion of a EU-sponsored project intended to expand the crime-fighting capacity of the Interior Ministry, Veljovic said on Oct. 22 that the project will make it easier for police to take on organized crime by laying a good foundation for the use of efficient techniques in line with the law.
Professor Simonovic believes that many state bodies and laws were established to meet various formal requirements imposed by international bodies. As an example he holds up the Law on Political Party Financing and public procurement regulations that are routinely ignored. He adds that only through comprehensive legislative activity and law enforcement can effective means for fighting corruption be ensured in all realms of society.
The Regulations and Reality section was made possible by Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Mission to Serbia. The OSCE Mission is funding all articles posted on this site.
Regulations and Reality takes a look at the implementation of the National Strategy on Fighting Corruption, approved in December 2005, the enforcement of anti-corruption laws passed in the last five years.
It also focuses on the effects of these laws, their limitations, errors that have appeared, and planned changes.
Every article created as part of the project is available free of charge to individuals and media outlets visiting the Argus website. The editors of Argus assume full responsibility for the views and information contained in each article. The articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the organizations supporting the project.
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