Improvement of Administrative Court’s role in the fight against corruption

Administrative Court is one of key institutions in overall system that should hold government (executive) accountable for its actions, being either last instance that unsatisfied citizen may address (after unsuccessful appeal) or even the only one (when the possibility to appeal is excluded by the law and only administrative dispute is allowed).

Moreover, Administrative Court has significant role in implementation of several anti-corruption preventive laws, most prominently in Free Access to Information Law, where an unsuccessful requestor may address only that body against decisions of the Government, Parliament, President, Constitutional Court, Supreme Cassation Court and State Prosecutor.

Administrative Court is also in charge to decide about some decisions of Anti-corruption Agency (e.g. conflict of interest or political party financing decisions), and about decisions of Republican Commission for Protection of Rights in Public Procurements.

However, the capacity of administrative dispute protection is poorly used by the citizens (the reasons range from more complicated procedure (then the one to appeal to the Commissioner for Information), lack of confidence in efficiency of court protection to lack of knowledge)

Transparency Serbia will provide support to the Administrative Court to improve transparency of its work, to the citizens and other CSO to better recognize role of the Administrative Court in implementation of anti-corruption legislation, thus improving overall government’s accountability and environment for the work of independent bodies.

Implementation of this project is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). All given statements are the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.