New reports, same problems

Transparency Serbia (official chapter of Transparency International) considers fact that Parliamentary committees each year turn more attention to discuss annual reports of independent state organs as positive, but emphasizes that National Assembly hasn’t secured implementation of its last year’s conclusions on these reports. That is one of the reasons why year after year independent organs claim the same problems for accomplishing civil rights and efficient corruption prevention.

As we already emphasized in June 2014 , last year Parliament of Serbia adopted most complete conclusions, on reports of independent state organs so far. Most important of all is the fact that Parliament obligated the Government to report on implementation of measures for improvement of regulations and practice adopted by parliamentary conclusions, by 6th December 2014. However, not only that the large number of measures remained unfulfilled, but the Government, contrary to its obligation, hasn’t reported the Parliament on its performance in deadline, nor after its expiration . 

Among other things, Parliamentary commands to Government to provide enforced execution of Commissioner for Information decisions and to initiate accountability procedure against officials that do not respect legal obligations, to propose amendments to Anticorruption Agency Law for resolving problems indicated by Anticorruption Agency, to provide transparency of legislative procedure, to provide discussion and consideration of Ombudsman’s recommendations and opinions, remained unresolved from last year’s measures.

Transparency – Serbia in the past ten years warned several times of unsuccessful supervisory role of National Assembly, among other, for not using reports of independent organs , to perform control over executive authority. Reports of state organs, that often speak of systemic problems and unpunished absence of will to implement preventive anticorruption regulations, were ignored for years or were discussed without clear result, and mere obligation of discussing was established just in 2010 with Parliamentary Rules of Procedure.

National Anticorruption Strategy from 2013 recognizes significance of this mater and therefore envisages introducing of legal obligation to the Government to report on implementation of these parliamentary conclusions. We emphasize that deadline for this obligation expired on 6 May 2015 and clearly hasn’t been respected . However, whatever laws or Rules of Procedure prescribe, that, according to our estimation, won’t mean a lot if the deputies are not prepared, regardless of the standpoint of their parties’ management, to request executive authority’s accountability for missing to implement laws and conclusions of the Parliament.