Making public debate truly public
Transparency Serbia considers as inappropriate that Ministries’ and Government’s group for promotion of election process hasn’t made any effort to enable wider public and stakeholders to participate public debate on changes of three laws, and especially the media.
Public debate on changes of the Law on Anticorruption Agency, on public enterprises and financing of political activities was announced on the web-sites of the Ministries of Justice, economy and finances, and in the program of the debate there was no mention on where the debate, scheduled for 16 October, will take place.
Announcement on the public debate was published on the web-site of the Office for Cooperation with Civil society two days before the round table, also without stating the venue. Therefore, the debate, held in the Palata Srbija, was attended by only three civil society organizations that received the invitation directly from the working group - CESID, CRTA and TS. The debate was not attended by the representatives of the mediathat were not invited to this event in a way state organs usually do.
Such form of organizing of round table is especially strange having in mind that Government stated in its press release issued after holding of the round table that "public debate was initiated with the goal of involving as much as possible stakeholders from both sides of the political scene,government institutions, international and nongovernmental organizations and civil society institutions".
In the meeting itself, no openness to any recommendations of the civil society organizations was shown, that came out of the framework of what government working group formulated as draft. Related to regulating of the officials campaign, it is even explicitly stated that this matter will not be comprehended with this package of law amending.
On the other hand, press release states that "opinions, that are stated during today’s public debate,will be inserted as proposals of changes of legal regulations already on the next debate, that will be held in the next period".
TS therefore expects next public debate with unease, in the hope that Government will do everything possible to widen the circle of participants and to enable the press to report directly from it and not through press release or statements.
News
Serbian Government Decree - Unlawful Restriction of Rights
Serbian Government decree on informing the population about the condition and consequences of infectious disease COVID-19 - banning anyone but the Crisis Staff from releasing information about the coronavirus pandemic, was reasonably interpreted as an expression of the intention to control the flow of information between health care institutions and…
... detaljnije ...Emergency procedure - why is it important?
There is no doubt that most MPs would have voted for a declaration of a state of emergency in Serbia if the Assembly had gathered, thus at first glance, in the current situation the fact that the act of proclamation of a state of emergency was jointly adopted by the…
... detaljnije ...Investments in realization of non-existent plan
The Minister of Finance announced that the proceeds from the sale of “Komercijalna Banka” will be invested "in a smart way" and "primarily in the investment plan ‘Serbia 2025’ ".These 400 million euros may be used wisely but certainly not on the basis of the "Serbia 2025 Investment Plan", because…
... detaljnije ...“Special law” discharges most valuable public procurement
The Law on Special Procedures for the Implementation of Projects for the Construction and Reconstruction of Line Infrastructure Facilities of Particular Importance for the Republic of Serbia, whose proposal is before MPs, is yet another in a series of acts that may have the purpose and certainly result in undermining…
... detaljnije ...Harmful Consequences of Non-Transparency in Public Property Management
Transparency Serbia considers as extremely useful that the State Audit Institution audited the purposefulness of leasing public property. The findings of the SAI illustrate well the findings of the Local Government Transparency Index for 2019[1]. TS found that 86.9% of municipality units posted calls for leases on their sites, and that…
... detaljnije ...Serbian investigative reporter prevented from speaking at UN anti-corruption conference in Abu Dhabi
Statement from the UNCAC Coalition Issued by Transparency International Secretariat Award-winning Serbian journalist Stevan Dojčinović, founder and editor-in-chief of the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network KRIK, was detained at Abu Dhabi International Airport early Wednesday morning. He was arriving in the United Arab Emirates to speak at a major UN anti-corruption event, the Conference…
... detaljnije ...About anticorruption laws on the International anticorruption day
Transparency Serbia is urging MPs to substantially improve four anti-corruption laws at the session that begins today, on an International Anti-Corruption Day, so that the possibility of misuse of public resources and public office gets curbed. The Government has proposed amendments to several articles in the Law on the Anti-Corruption Agency…
... detaljnije ...Whistleblower from Krušik
Faith of potential criminal procedure against whistleblower from „Krušik“ for „revealing of business secret“ depends on several elements. First from the fact on whether the data he provided to the press even had a status of „business secret“. Whether, in other words, that was the information with commercial value because…
... detaljnije ...Report of the Coalition prEUgovor about the progress of Serbia in chapters 23 and 24
Coalition prEUgovor ascertained in the latest report on fulfilling of criteria for chapters 23 and 24 that tendency of degrading continues, that authorities’ only concern is whether the opposition will boycott the elections, therefore functioning of institutions, rule of law and establishing of social consensus are not the priorities. The summary…
... detaljnije ...Statement on donations for sport teams – confessing the abuse of public resources
Statement of the Minister of Finances that since 2014 by today two of the largest football and basketball equips „received from the state“ around 4,7 billion of RSD, represents confession that donations were accompanied by the abuse of official post or trading with influence. According to this statement, that was not…
... detaljnije ...
Minister announced, ministry doesn’t know what he is talking about
Minister of Finances Siniša Mali stated in April 2019 that study of justification of constructing the national football stadium will be finalized by 10 May 2019. TS requested from the Ministry of Finances by the beginning of May information–to whom, how, in which procedure was entrusted drafting of study, copy…
... detaljnije ...Making public debate truly public
Transparency Serbia considers as inappropriate that Ministries’ and Government’s group for promotion of election process hasn’t made any effort to enable wider public and stakeholders to participate public debate on changes of three laws, and especially the media. Public debate on changes of the Law on Anticorruption Agency, on public enterprises…
... detaljnije ...Changes of the Law on Financing Political Activities
Transparency Serbia (official chapter of Transparency International) finds it useful that draft of amendments to the Law on Financing Political Activities regulates duty of Anticorruption Agency to proceed by complaints during the election campaign in five days deadline, to determine whether there have been violations of regulations and to publish…
... detaljnije ...International Right to Know Day
This years 28 September, International Right to Know Day, we welcomed in Serbia in a much better mood than in previous year. Namely, in one of the several meetings that were dedicated to the right to access to information, representatives of the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-governance implied…
... detaljnije ...Problem of the "officials’ campaigns" remains unresolved
Transparency Serbia (official chapter of Transparency International) emphasizes that interpretations that adoption of the Conclusion of the Government, prohibited or limited "officials’ campaigns",are wrong. More strict regulations could be introduced only with Law, and the chances to do so, on the basis of specific proposals of the amendments formulated by…
... detaljnije ...Final account
Transparency Serbia pointed out that delivering of final budget account to the NA, which has finally happened after more than four years, is only one of the things that Ministry of Finances and the Government had to do in order to make the budget related proceedings more transparent and accountable. According to…
... detaljnije ...Too much secrecy of data in public enterprises
Since the December last year Transparency Serbia monitors implementation of the Law on free Access to Information and announced changes of that Law. Draft changes and amendments of the Law presented by the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-government last year, envisaged significant narrowing the right to free access…
... detaljnije ...Prosecution should react to statements on political blackmail of the employed in the grammar school
Transparency Serbia pointed out to supreme public prosecution in Belgrade–special department for curbing corruption to media statements about blackmailing of employees in in grammar school in BelaCrkva to perform duties beneficial to political party if they wish to save their jobs. Beta news agency published information from the Portal Belocrkvanews which, if turned out…
... detaljnije ...What is the value of the land of "Belgrade waterfront"?
News on sales of the construction land "MarinaDorćol", next to the bank of Danubeprovides excellent insight into proportion of damage that Belgrade and Serbia suffered by signing of contract for the project "Belgrade Waterfront". According to the news, 4 hectare of land next to the river bank, in which 76.000 "of squares…
... detaljnije ...Inviting of OSCE to control the elections and what should actually be requested from them
News about President of working group for cooperation with OSCE Nebojša Stefanović, inviting for monitoring of upcoming elections in Serbia, and "asked for a meeting in which all details of future cooperation would be discussed", doesn’t say yet anything about whether the Government of Serbia has the intention to ask…
... detaljnije ...
TS presented results of research and ranking LTI 2019
Transparency Serbia presented results of research and ranking of all municipalities and cities in Serbia - LTI 2019. The most transparent in Serbia are Plandište with index 67 and Novi Pazar and Paraćin with 66, while average index for the complete territory of Serbia is 40. The largest challenge to increasing…
... detaljnije ...What will working group of the Government monitor, and what should it do
News about adoption of the decision about establishing of working group for cooperation with OSCE by the Government on its „last sitting“, „whose task is to follow implementation of recommendations of this organization for improving of electoral procedure“, was neither published in the report from the sitting of the Government from…
... detaljnije ...Conditions for elections, president in the campaign, media – what is not being mentioned (2)
By commenting the decision of several opposition parties to boycott the elections, Prime-Minister, Ana Brnabić, besides the thesis legitimately used in political battle between authorities and opposition, stated also couple of thesis or missed to mention several facts that deserve a comment in regards to rule of law and democracy in Serbia. Thereby…
... detaljnije ...RAEM reports – what is their legal obligation
Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media, or person who writes press releases on their behalf and answers to media (CINS, Politika, Danas) tried hard in the past few days to prove that no secret reports on monitoring of broadcasters, during the election campaign in 2016, existed. When we exclude…
... detaljnije ...Presentation of Local Transparency Index - LTI 2019
On September 6, 2019, the United States Agency for International Development and Transparency Serbia (TS)will present the 2019 Local Transparency Index. TS used 95 indicators to evaluate and rank the transparency of all municipalities and cities in Serbia. We invite the media to a press conference on September 6, 2019…
... detaljnije ...Partnership with expected outcome
One of the political opponents of the current government indicated that just finalized choice of strategic partner for „Morava koridor“ was not transparent. It is more likely to say that the Government of Serbia highly transparentlylead the process to the outcome with only one bid on the table. National Assembly in the July…
... detaljnije ...Belgrade among least transparent capitals in Europe
Research by the Transparency International chapters. covering 26 European capitals, shows Belgrade is among the least transparent cities. The capitals were tested based on 14 indicators, including the access to information about the decision-making process, money spending, public procurement and ethic rules. The researchers looked for data and documents for 12 of…
... detaljnije ...How much is this road?
After the public became justifiably upset with the fact that Government of Serbia agreed on construction of high-way from New Belgrade to Surčin by the price of around 9 million of euros per one kilometer, public enterprise „Putevi Srbije“ provided some explanation. Those explanations although useful, are insufficient. It is…
... detaljnije ...Recommendations of ODIHR, election conditions and "working group of the Government"
For an ignorant reader news from the meeting of the representatives of the Government of Serbia and Mission of OSCE it may look like Serbia continuously works on implementation of recommendations of international organizations that deal with election conditions. The truth, at least until now, is different. Statement of the Prime-minister that…
... detaljnije ...Special specifications
Ministry of Interior continues to hide data about the money of the citizens that it spends on purchase of vehicles. After hiding of data on the price of patrol vehicles, now the data about the price of 60 “marica”, 12 fire-department and eight medical vehicles remains hidden. Like in previous “secret”…
... detaljnije ...
- 1
- 2
- 3
Pretraga
