Change in laws “won’t help end corruption”

The president of the Anti-Corruption Council says announced new legislation will not help fight corruption. Verica Barac commented the upcoming amendments to the Law on Conflict of Interest, and said that the Council for Prevention of Conflicts of Interest works well, but that the government has been it will shut this institution down for the last two years, "exactly for that reason". Change in laws “won’t help end corruption” “Instead of fixing that law and giving the council opportunities to work, with this draft, the government decided to shut down the council and that means that all the results will be nullified and that the new body will have to start from scratch,” Barac told B92. “Keep in mind that the government saw that the council, which parliament selected ten members for, was a lot harder to control, put pressure on and corrupt, than the would be the case with a director of an anti-corruption agency,” she said. Barac said that implementing long-term concepts of reforms is necessary in the fight against corruption. "That means passing well-harmonized laws and creating institutions which can guarantee that the laws will be implemented. Fixing the law for conflicts of interest and increasing the powers of the council is also necessary," she said. Barac said that Serbia is still the only country in Europe that does not have a state auditing institution and that it needs to enable the state to handle this, so that the “final receipt of the budget can be given to the parliament and checked by the state auditors.” “The documents are unavailable, so it's impossible to control the government,” she said, adding that “what is being done with state money, state property, apartments, automobiles, is one utter 'dark vilayet',” Barac said. She added that,“after eight years,” the state of the judiciary should be analyzed, and reminded that the Serbia has had acting state prosecutor for almost eight years , while some prosecutors have in these several years been up for re-election seven or eight times. Barac recommended a new law to be passed, in order to control the financing of political parties.

Change in laws “won’t help end corruption”

“Instead of fixing that law and giving the council opportunities to work, with this draft, the government decided to shut down the council and that means that all the results will be nullified and that the new body will have to start from scratch,” Barać told B92.

“Keep in mind that the government saw that the council, which parliament selected ten members for, was a lot harder to control, put pressure on and corrupt, than the would be the case with a director of an anti-corruption agency,” she said.

Barać said that implementing long-term concepts of reforms is necessary in the fight against corruption.

"That means passing well-harmonized laws and creating institutions which can guarantee that the laws will be implemented. Fixing the law for conflicts of interest and increasing the powers of the council is also necessary," she said.

Barać said that Serbia is still the only country in Europe that does not have a state auditing institution and that it needs to enable the state to handle this, so that the “final receipt of the budget can be given to the parliament and checked by the state auditors.”

“The documents are unavailable, so it's impossible to control the government,” she said, adding that “what is being done with state money, state property, apartments, automobiles, is one utter 'dark vilayet',” Barać said.

She added that,“after eight years,” the state of the judiciary should be analyzed, and reminded that the Serbia has had acting state prosecutor for almost eight years , while some prosecutors have in these several years been up for re-election seven or eight times.

Barać recommended a new law to be passed, in order to control the financing of political parties.