Transparency Serbia
- Introduction
- Current Activities
- Publications and presentations
- Strategic Framework
- Organizational Structure
- People
- Statute
- Organization Funding
- Code of Ethics
Introduction
Transparency Serbia is non- partisan, non-governmental and non-for profit voluntary organization established with the aim of curbing corruption in Serbia.
Transparency Serbia’s main goal is to increase transparency in the work of state organs as a way to prevent abuse of public authority for private purposes, through preventive activity - raising public awareness about the dangers and damage that corruption does to society, fostering reforms and proposing concrete recommendations.
Transparency Serbia is national chapter and representative of Transparency International in Republic of Serbia.
Current Activities
Publications and presentations
Summarized results of TS' work in 2017
Strategic Framework
Based on the goals established by the founding documents of Transparency Serbia (TS) and the Transparency International Strategy 2020, taking into account the relevant international conventions, regulations and strategic acts of the Republic of Serbia, findings and recommendations of our own and others' researches and the achievement of the Strategic Framework TS in the period 2005-2010 and 2011-2015, the Assembly of the Association, on the proposal of the Managing Board, passes the following:
Strategy for work and development of the TS for the period 2017-2020
Structure of the Organization
The bodies of Transparency Serbia organization are:
- Assembly, which adopt most important documents of organization and elect other bodies,
- Managerial Board, which is responsible for strategy and implementing of planned activities,
- Supervisory board, with control function,
Legal representatives of the organization are the Executive Director, Program Director and Financial Director.
Beside bodies of organization important role in implementing of Transparency's aims has also:
- Project managers
- Project assistants
- Permanent and temporary associate
People
Program Director (issues related to the implementation of existing and designing new anti-corruption program):
Nemanja Nenadic
Executive Director (organizational issues of association)
Bojana Medenica
Project administration and research
Zlatko Minic
Zlata Djordjevic
Aleksandra Ajdanic
Robert Sepi
Marija Radovic
Milos Djordjevic
Web - administration
Marko Popadic
Managerial Board
Nemanja Nenadic
Nemanja Nenadic is a lawyer having 21 years of legal experience and 18 years’ professional experience in the field of fight against corruption. Worked for Transparency Serbia, OSCE, UNDP, RESPA and other international organizations, Serbian and other Western Balkans NGOs and Serbian governmental bodies and consultancy firms (mostly on EU projects) and academic institutions as legal and anti-corruption expert, trainer, lecturer, project manager and translator. Particularly experienced in following fields: corruption in general; international and national anticorruption instruments as well as anticorruption tools and measures; anti-corruption strategies; free access to information; political party and electoral campaign financing; public procurement; budget transparency, internal audit, budget accounting, codes of ethics, conflict of interest, media law, public administration reform, local government, whistle-blower protection, state aid, public – private partnerships, EU integration (chapters 23, 24, 5, 32) etc. Experienced in drafting of anti-corruption strategies, laws, by-laws, codes of ethics, internal acts, analyses of legislation and its implementation, training of NGOs, journalists, civil servants. Designed and implemented projects focused on monitoring of implementation of anti-corruption legislation and work of public institutions on central and local level.
Nemanja Nenadic Register of Interest
Bojana Medenica
Bojana Medenica - lawyer with 15 years of experience as a lawyer and manager, expert, assistant or lecturer on various projects of Transparency Serbia, including monitoring of laws’ implementation, advocacy, legal analyses and trainings. She started her career at the Law Office as a Lawyer’s assistant and joined Transparency Serbia in 2005. She has been the Executive Director of Transparency Serbia since 2007. In her work with Transparency Serbia she has focused on issues of corruption in general, free access to information, public procurements and political party financing. She holds law degree from the The Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade.
Bojana Medenica Register of Interest
Natalija Lasic
Natalija Lasic Vranic is an Interior Architect with all-round experience, confident at all stages of the design process, concept to completion. She has been working internationally in various positions within the building sector, developing an expertise across a broad spectrum of architecture and design sectors. Successfully handled regeneration, mix-use projects, new build and extension projects including building alterations and remodeling, changes of use for existing properties, redevelopment, interior design and fit-outs of varied building types from a Hotel, Commercial, Bank, Office, Educational, Healthcare, Residential. Natalija holds MA degree of Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade.
Natalija Lasic Register of Interest
Zlatko Minic
Journalist with 26 years of experience, specialized in corruption-related topics with 20 years of professional experience in that field. Former member of Anticorruption Agency of Serbia’s Board. Had been deputy editor in chief at Beta News Agency, editor of Beta’s regional anticorruption web portal Clean hands (Čiste ruke). Has been working for OSCE, Transparency Serbia and other international organizations and NGOs as anticorruption expert, lecturer and trainer, and for Serbian governmental bodies as expert. Engaged as key expert on 2-year EU anti-corruption project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. More than 15 years of experience in training journalists, students and NGO representatives in the following fields: journalism in general, NGO-media relations, codes of ethics, corruption in general, conflict of interest, political party financing, free access to information, public procurements, public-private partnerships, anticorruption instruments, tools and measures. Experienced in drafting anti-corruption strategies, laws. He holds mechanical science degree from the The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade.
Zlatko Minic Register of Interest
Prof. Dr. Radmila Vasić
Prof. Vasić began her career at the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade on 1 November 1975, by teaching Introduction to Jurisprudence. She has led the Legal Writing courses since 2005 and Legal Ethics since 2006. She has led the Legal Clinic for Combating Corruption since 2013 (with Prof. Dr. Ivana Krstić).
Prof. Vasić was promoted to full professor on 25 May 2005.
She taught Basics of Law at the Faculty of Political Sciences and led the educational undergraduate and postgraduate programs offered by the Alternative Academic Educational Network and the Belgrade Open School. She participated in the postgraduate programme in Translation Studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences with courses on Introduction to Jurisprudence, and subsequently in the same programme organized by the Centre for Education Policy. She was a guest lecturer on the topic of Reform of Judiciary at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2006, Prof. Vasić has taught the following courses: Corruption Prevention Measures, National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Integrity Plans, within the specialist study programme of the University of Belgrade in Terrorism, Organized Crime and Corruption. For the school year 2007/08, she was the author and leader of courses on Law, Legislation and Legislative Policies (supported by the OSCE). She participated in the OSCE Legislative Drafting Methodology project, resulting in a proposed Uniform Methodology Rules for Drafting of Regulations that was adopted as binding by the Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.
From 1999-2003, Ms. Vasić served as the executive director of the Center for Advanced Legal Studies. From 2003-2009, she was a member of the Anti-Corruption Council, and from 2004-2006, a member of the Social Science Commission of the Ministry of Science and Environmental Protection. She was a member of the first convocation of the Board of the Anti-Corruption Agency, from 2009-2013, and chairperson of the Commission of Pardons of the President of Republic of Serbia, from 2005-2012.
She was a member of the Expert Group on Legal Theory of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU) and a member of the Association for Theory, Sociology and Philosophy of Law. Presently serves as a member of the Serbian Association of Constitutional Law and the Serbian Association for Legal and Social Philosophy. She was a member of the Council of the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, for three terms and a member of the Council for Legal and Economic Sciences of the University of Belgrade (from 1 November 2010); head of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Legal and Social Sciences of the Faculty of Law (from 2012); chairperson of the Committee for Professional Ethics, University of Belgrade (from 4 September 2014); head of the Department of Theory, Sociology and Philosophy of Law (from 1 October 2015). Ms. Vasić has been a member of the Council of the Centre for Constitutionalism since 29 December 2015. She was the author and leaded the seminar on Drafting of Legislation and Other Legal Documents from 1 July 2016. She is a member of Center for Judicial Research. She was the author and leaded the workshops on Ethics of Judges and Prosecutors from 2 November 2018 to 25 September 2019.
Retired since 1 October 2018.
Prof. Dr. Radmila Vasić Register of Interest
Supervisory Board
Marijana Trivunovic
Mrs Trivunovic is independent consultant whose expertise are in the area of good governance, public administration, public policy, political science and anti-corruption. Her work in anti-corruption begain in 1999 with Open Society Institute in Budapest, promoting civil society efforts to advance transparency and accountablity. Since 2006 she has worked independently to support anti-corruption efforts of various governmental agencies, international organizations including Council of Europe, UNDP, and OECD, and non-governmental organisations such as Transparency International. She is also long-term affilitated expert of the the U4 Anti-Corruption Research Centre in Norway, and has proudly served on Transparency Serbia’s Supervisory Board since 2019.
She holds BA degree in Architectural History at the University of Virginia, USA and MA degree in Southeast European at the Studies Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Marijana Trivunovic Register of Interest
Nikola Matic
Nikola Matic is a qualified Engineer with over 25 years’ experience of Engineering in infrastructure and buildings. He is especially skilled in multi-disciplinary project studies different segments integration under the FIDIC model of contracts. His experience embraces strategy and planning development of land transportation and the engineering of the required infrastructure, including building sector. He has large experience in negotiation, mediation, claim and contract management and problem solving on regionally funded projects. Besides regular tasks in managing companies VMS and DNEC, he is responsible for all aspects of the supervision of construction, for the administration of construction contracts under various FIDIC Conditions of Contract. He is a co-founder and Board member of the national consulting engineers’ association ACES. He served on Transparency Serbia’s Supervisory Board since 2019.
Nikola Matic Register of Interest
Dragoslav Velickovic
With MA in Economics at the University of Akron, Mr. Velickovic started his career at the Belgrade Stock Exchange as advisor and continued at the Societe Generale Banka Serbia as a Head of Investment Services in 2006. In 2012, he became Head of Macroeconomic Research and Analysis at Societe General. With the merger of Societe Generale and OTP bank, Dragoslav is current Expert for Macroeconomic Research and Analysis at OTP bank Serbia. Mr. Velickovic is one of the founder of Transparency Serbia and member of the Supervisory Board since July 2019. Dragoslav holds a 40% stake in the family run Vinogradi i vinarija Velickovic d.o.o. The other 60% is held by family members.
Dragoslav Velickovic Register of Interest
Aleksandar Đekić
He was born in Osijek on November 13, 1983. He finished high school in Becej, and the faculty in Novi Sad. One of the founders (2010) and president of the Becej Youth Association. Since 2011 he has been active in the Coalition for the Supervision of Public Finances as a researcher in several areas: public procurement, budget, state aid, competition protection, private public partnerships. Since 2012, the editor-in-chief of the "MojBečej" portal, whose primary focus is topics in the field of public finances, as well as local daily information from the perspective of citizens. From 2012 to 2016, a member of the Youth Council of AP Vojvodina. He was hired as a consultant for the development of the Action Plan for Youth Policy in AP Vojvodina 2015-2020. where he coordinated the working group for security, and was a member of the working group for the development of the Action Plan of the National Youth Strategy 2018-2020. He was engaged as a consultant to the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities in the areas of citizen participation and transparency of local budgets. Within the National Convention on the EU, he is a member of the working group that monitors the negotiating chapters 5 - public procurement and 32 - financial control. His focus is on European integration, public finances, media freedoms and youth policy.
Aleksandar Đekić Register of Interest
Ivan Grujić
Ivan Grujić is a lawyer born in 1977. and lives in Leskovac. He has been in the civil sector since 2000. and since 2010 he also works as a consultant through the Association Agency. Since 2017 has a startup that develops an innovative office chair that should help users stay longer.
Ivan Grujić Register of Interest
Statute
Organization Funding
Transparency Serbia is funded mainly through project implementation grants. Transparency Serbia does not accept funding that could damage the independence of the organisation or or that might impair the independence of the organization to pursue its mission. At the same time, we emphasize on all materials produced within the projects that the opinions and views expressed belong exclusively to Transparency Serbia.
In addition to project-funded activities, Transparency Serbia is implementing many others for which there is no donor support (e.g. comments on the current anti-corruption themes, press releases, legal initiatives for adoption or amending regulation, FOI requests, etc.).
In accordance with the Law, associations may, under certain conditions, carry out business or other activities. In addition to legal requirements, Transparency Serbia has also set its own limits for accepting such jobs.
Transparency Serbia regularly submits annual financial report to the Business Registers Agency.
Data on funding source are available as well as the structure of the source of income in previous years .
Code of Ethics and other internal documents
- TS Code of Ethics.pdf
- Register of Interest (last updated february 2019)
- Rules on Ethical Advocacy (in Serbian only - last updated 08.07.2019)
- Rules on Donations (in Serbian only)
- Rules on Registration of Interests (in Serbian only, last updated 11.09.2017)
- Rules on Conflict of Interest Prevention and Resolution (in Serbian only, last updated 11.09.2017)
- Rules on Due Diligence related to the Paid Advisory and Proffessional Services (in Serbian only, last updated 11.09.2017)
News
Unjustified delay in the preparation of the law
Transparency Serbia pointed out today that the ministries have not organized a public debate on any draft law since February. However, there are already significant delays in fulfilling obligations from strategic documents, including the Action Plan for Chapter 23 and the Media Strategy. The "technical government" can therefore only be seen…
... detaljnije ...LTI 2022: Novi Pazar, Sombor and Sokobanja – Transparency Leaders
The most transparent local governments in 2022 are Novi Pazar, Sombor and Sokobanja, according to this year's survey of the Local Transparency Index (LTI 2022), which Transparency Serbia presented at today's press conference. The average transparency index of cities and municipalities in Serbia in 2022 is 49 points - one point…
... detaljnije ...Six years of delay in meeting GRECO recommendations
Transparency Serbia points out that official reactions from Serbia to the new GRECO report are inadequate concerning its content. Although GRECO stated in its report published on March 30, 2022,[1] that a more significant number of recommendations were met when compared to the recommendations from the previous one, it is…
... detaljnije ...Citizens pay 15.7 million euros for the election campaign
Citizens' money for elections The 2022 united presidential and parliamentary elections hit a record for the amount of money the Serbian citizens paid to get convinced by the parties to vote for their lists and candidates. This year, the total budget allocations, which most parties led together for both types of…
... detaljnije ...Distinct media domination of the ruling party and candidates through a functionary campaign and paid advertising
Citizens who are interested in the amount and sources of the party spending on the election campaign have been denied this information this year. Despite the newly introduced obligation to submit preliminary reports less than 12 hours before the "election silence", these reports have not yet been published for nine…
... detaljnije ...Insufficient transparency of election campaign financing
Very little data on the election campaign financing is available to the citizens in the elections 2022, as in the previous ones. The legal changes have brought almost no progress in that regard, Transparency Serbia's research shows. The subject of this research is voluntary transparency, that is, what the political entities…
... detaljnije ...Election 2022 Monitoring - TS presented the first findings
Intensive public officials' campaign, higher participation of state officials in party activities than in previous election cycles and media domination of Aleksandar Vučić and his election list through a combination of public officials' campaign, statements and guest appearances on TV and advertising are the main characteristics of the first four…
... detaljnije ...Proposals for amendments to improve the election process
Transparency Serbia sent to the Serbian Parliament proposals for amendments to the laws that are being changed before the announced April elections, which would significantly improve these regulations, and thus the election process. Proposals for amendments to the Law on Financing Political Activities, the Law on the Election of People's Deputies…
... detaljnije ...The Government missed the opportunity to significantly improve laws that change before elections
Transparency Serbia reckons that the Government missed the opportunity to significantly improve the laws that are being changed before the announced April elections, even though the line ministries received numerous concrete proposals within the public debate. As a result, running a "functionary campaign" will not be prevented once again, the…
... detaljnije ...Press Release on the issue of EPS management
Regarding the issue of Milorad Grcic's responsibility for the situation in the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS), Transparency Serbia calls on the Government of Serbia to ensure at least essential legality of work in public companies and to appoint directors elected at public competitions. We also recall that the Government…
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Abolish the obligation to verify signatures for the People's Initiative, not just fees
The proposal for amending the Law on Referendum and People's Initiative, which the Assembly will decide on today, based on the Government's proposal and after the citizens' protest, contains a decision that the costs of signature verification for the People's Initiative will not be charged. The Government proposed a solution…
... detaljnije ...Proposed amendments to the law do not solve the problem of "functionary campaign"
Transparency Serbia points out that the proposed amendments to the Law on Electronic Media and the Law on Prevention of Corruption, although useful, do not solve the problem of intensive "functionary campaign", which is much more represented in the media than presenting election participants programs and paid advertising. According to the…
... detaljnije ...For stronger independence of the judiciary, it is necessary to change the Constitution and the “clerk’s mind” of judges and…
Although amendments to the Constitution lead to positive changes, this is only the first normative step. It’s necessary to change the laws, but also the practice and awareness of both judges and prosecutors, as well as the public, in order to really achieve the goal of judicial independence. That was…
... detaljnije ...Agreement on electoral conditions does not solve all the problems
The political agreement between the two ruling and seven opposition political parties and the President of the National Assembly envisages some measures that can increase the integrity of the election process and the equality of election participants, but many problems are not touched at all or are only seemingly solved…
... detaljnije ...Corruption risks in regulations and lobbying in Serbia
Corruption risks in regulations In most cases, the competent ministries did not respect the obligation to submit draft laws to the Anti-Corruption Agency for an opinion, in order to determine whether they contain corruption risks, is what Transparency Serbia has found in the research "Corrupt risks in regulations and lobbying in…
... detaljnije ...The right to access information is threatened, and the announced changes to the law do not solve all important problems
Press release of the Coalition for Free Access to Information on the occasion of the International Day of the Public's Right to Know The Coalition for Freedom of Access to Information, on the occasion of September 28, the International Day of the Public's Right to Know, points out that the citizens…
... detaljnije ...The Commissioner annulled the decision of the National Fund for Health Insurance which denied access to data on Covid-19 procurements
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection annulled the decision by which the National Fund for Health Insurance refused to submit data to Transparency Serbia on the value of conducted procurements to counter the pandemic. TS previously filed a complaint with the Commissioner against the fund…
... detaljnije ...Useful, but insufficient suggestions from the dialogues on election conditions
Transparency Serbia points out that the proposals from the two inter-party dialogues on election conditions published so far do not offer clear solutions to some of the most important problems of election campaign financing and the use of public function to promote political entities. Bearing in mind that the precondition…
... detaljnije ...Press release regarding work on the new law on public information and media
Media Association, Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Association of Online Media (AOM), Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina (IJAV), Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS), the Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Local Press”, Transparency Serbia and Journalists’ Association of Serbia (JAS), announced today that they sent letters to…
... detaljnije ...Easily verifiable lies of Goran Vesic
Goran Vesic, the deputy mayor of Belgrade, who is not competent for this matter, continued to comment on the procedure of “public bidding” for the lease of sports facilities in Dorcol, which was conducted by the city Commission for Business Premises. He did not hesitate to use lies – very…
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With lies and insults, Vesic defends circumventing the law
The program director of Transparency of Serbia, Nemanja Nenadic, reacted to the insinuation, lie and insult made by the deputy mayor in a statement for one of Belgrade tabloids: The deputy mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesić, stated: “Nemanja Nenadic will go down in history as a person who would like to…
... detaljnije ...Rigged public bidding for the lease of a sports complex in Dorcol
The City of Belgrade has announced an advertisement for the lease of a sports complex in Dorcol with conditions that abuse the purpose of public bidding because it can be met by a single company, which has organised this year’s tennis tournaments ATP and WTA 250 series. On 10 July 2021…
... detaljnije ...A new blow to the legal system and order in Serbia
The Ministry of Economy has stricken a new blow to the legal system and order in Serbia by trying to present that persons whose term of office as acting directors of public companies has expired continue to perform those functions legally. In the report from the public debate on the Draft…
... detaljnije ...Suggestions for improving access to information
The existing draft amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information must be significantly improved so that citizens can effectively exercise their rights and the authorities are adequately controlled. In addition, the provisions of other regulations must be changed at the same time, which is not foreseen at all…
... detaljnije ...Letter to the President of the National Assembly – On the occasion of the amendment of the Constitution
On 14 June 2021, the Judicial Subgroup of the Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union sent a letter to the speakers of the National Assembly and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and Legislation on the occasion of the Committee’s future work on amending the Constitution. Dear Mr…
... detaljnije ...Public procurement and public-private partnerships - between solid regulations and poor practice
Public procurement in Serbia is ever less public even though basic regulations in this area are mostly harmonized with the European standards. This is the main conclusion of the research Transparency Serbia has performed, and presented at today’s media conference. As poor as the situation in public procurement is, it is…
... detaljnije ...Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance - the new draft endangers the achieved level…
Specific solutions from the Draft Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance are unacceptable because they lower the existing citizens’ right to access information, a group of civil society organisations announced. On the other hand, the draft does not contain solutions to some of the biggest…
... detaljnije ...Serbia ranks low in the transparency of anti-crisis measures
Serbia is among the countries that did not bring packages of urgent economic and fiscal measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic in a sufficiently transparent way - show the results of the International Budget Partnership (IBP) survey from Washington Transparency Serbia transmits. None of the 120 observed countries, according to the…
... detaljnije ...A call to the prosecution to react to the illegal appointment of the acting director
Transparency Serbia called on the Republic Public Prosecutor's Office (RPPO) to file a lawsuit against the violation of the law to the detriment of the public interest, i.e. to initiate an administrative dispute to challenge the legality of the decision on the retroactive appointment of Filip Radović as acting director…
... detaljnije ...In memoriam: Danilo Pejović (1965-2021)
We are sad to inform our associates that our friend and financial director of the organization, Danilo Pejović, suddenly left us. With his dedicated work in the past two decades, Danilo has made an immeasurable contribution to the establishment, strengthening and stable functioning of Transparency Serbia. In addition, Danilo left an indelible…
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