Transparency International, the only international non-governmental organisation devoted to combating corruption, brings civil society, business, and governments together in a powerful global coalition.

TI, through its International Secretariat and more than 80 independent national chapters around the world, works at both the national and international level to curb both the supply and demand of corruption.

In the international arena, TI raises awareness ABOUT the damaging effects of corruption, advocates policy reform, works towards the implementation of multilateral conventions and subsequently monitors compliance by governments, corporations and banks.

At the national level, chapters work to increase levels of accountability and transparency, monitoring the performance of key institutions and pressing for necessary reforms in a non-party political manner.

TI focuses on prevention and reforming systems, instead of exposing individual cases.

Transparency Serbia is non- partisan, non-governmental and non-for profit voluntary organization established with the aim of curbing corruption in Serbia.

The Organization will promote transparency and accountability of the public officials as well as curbing corruption defined as abusing of power for the private interest.
Transparency Serbia is national chapter and representative of Transparency International in Republic of Serbia.

The history of Transparency International presence in Serbia

According to a series of indicators, including public opinion surveys conducted up until the end of September 2000, during the decade-long rule of the previous government a deeply entrenched collusion between the state apparatus and organised crime had developed in Serbia. Grand corruption was the modus operandi of many segments of societal management. The new government has inherited the old apparatus and its shortcomings. However, the new authorities have made important breakthroughs in fight against crime and corruption and civil society has also been free to exercise its ACTIVITIES in this field. In November 2000, the European Movement in Serbia (Emins) Transparency Group began its anti-corruption ACTIVITIES with a programme at the local government level involving three pilot municipalities, soon expanded to involve 14 additional municipalities. At the same time, successful co-operation with republican and federal authorities was established. These developments encouraged the Transparency International to establish it's chapter in Serbia in February 2001.

In addition to the successful co-operation with local government authorities, TI enjoys good relations with national authorities.

TI Serbia was asked by both the republican and federal government to prepare a National Integrity System Survey for Serbia and FR Yugoslavia,to assist in drafting the national anti-corruption strategy and,in public procurement law implementation and monitoring.

TI Serbia's President of the time, Mr. Predrag Jovanovic, has become the Vice-President of the Anti-corruption Council of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and recently the Director of Public Procurement office.

The organization has also established close co-operation with MEDIA, professional associations, scientific institutions, independent experts, student organisations and other local NGOs.

In summer of 2002 TI Serbia was reorganized into the new, independent NGO "Transparency - Serbia", and new executive board and president were elected.

Strategy and planned ACTIVITIES

On the basis of the outcomes of the national integrity system survey, Transparency - Serbia has identified the following focus areas for its forthcoming ACTIVITIES:

Evaluation of National anti-corruption strategy implementation and assistance to the ministries in preparing anti-corruption action plansAssistance in implementation of Conflict of Interest Law and Code of ConductPublic awareness campaign and lobbying for free access to informationMonitoring of implementation of Political Party Financing LawPromoting business ethicsPublic procurement practices: analysis and drafting of recommendations for reformFurther co-operation with the local government authoritiesRegional co-operation with CSOs, including TI NCs

TransparencyInternational has been fighting against corruption at a global levelfor ten years now. However, corruption keeps eating into political,economic and social life, and assumes new shapes and forms, parallel todevelopment of anticorruption instruments.

TransparencySerbia is a part of the network of Transparency Internationalorganization branches and, at the same time, a local non-governmentagency, registered in accordance with regulations of Republic Serbiaand state union of Serbia and Montenegro. Transparency Serbia had beenformed and commenced its work in the period following the regime changein Serbia, when the prerequisites were met for an all encompassingstruggle against corruption to begin through institutional and systemreforms.

Eventhough it started its work relatively recently, Transparency Serbia hasalso been recognized in domestic and international public, by stateorgans, economy, media, experts, professional associations andcitizens, as one of the most competent organizations in the country asfar as anticorruption policies are concerned.

Corruptionin Serbia represents a serious social problem. Citizens' opinions,declared program priorities of political parties and analyses ofinternational organizations all point to that. The scope of corruptionis impossible to asses, because statistical data do not provide anyreliable basis for making conclusions. Thence the assessments of thescale of corruption use analyses of public opinion and analyses ofpublic perception of corruption performed on a qualified sample.

Struggleagainst corruption in the period of 2001-2004 has mostly been treatedas a matter of furthering legal and institutional framework. Theadopted regulations are mostly not being carried out, and theinstitutions encounter significant hindrances in their work. Thecitizens' discontent caused by the pace of the changes and instabilityof the political situation represent factors that hamper successfulcreation and long term implementation of anticorruption programs. Oneof the main problems is the fact that some of the anticorruptionmeasures were passed prior to adopting a strategic framework of a longterm and sustainable concept of struggle against corruption, so they'renot sufficiently compatible.

Inthe past couple of years, citizens have rated corruption as fourth onthe list of problems in society (right after poverty, unemployment andgeneral crime). Public opinion researches indicate that citizensbelieve it to be very widespread in Serbia, but also that such anopinion is less founded in personal experience, and more on the basesof preconceptions and stories of others'. These researches indicatethat a large number of citizens won't even report cases of 'petty'corruption, of which they have immediate knowledge.

Itis even more difficult to asses reliable data about the scope ofcorruption 'on a grand scale'. The data obtained on the bases ofresearch of corruption perception of international business persons andrisks analysts do speak of this in an indirect way. According to one ofthese analyses, (Corruption Perception Index – CPI, TransparencyInternational), Serbia and Montenegro find themselves in the group ofhighly corrupt countries (97 th of 145 countries rated in 2004, with anindex of 2,7 on a scale of 10, where those with index of less than fourare considered highly corrupt). During the previous four years, acertain progress has been made compared to the index of 1,3 of the year2000.

Sincethe process of economic and social transition in many areas is eitheron the very beginning or had taken a completely wrong turn, it isrealistic that we as a society are only yet to encounter the massivework in the struggle against corruption. Also, it could not be expectedthat by enacting the National Anticorruption Strategy, in the creationof which Transparency Serbia played a significant part, the mechanismsof struggle against corruption will ultimately be defined and widelyaccepted during the forthcoming years.

Inview of the old existing problems and new opportunities for thestruggle against corruption in Serbia to begin in a way that wouldyield more results, Transparency Serbia opted to carry out the processof strategic planning and to pass this Strategic Framework throughwhich it defines goals and directions of its activities in the periodof 2005 – 2010, bearing in mind the general guidelines established bystrategic framework of Transparency International global network.

In that respect, the organization's mission and vision are the following:

Vision

Serbia,as a country in which corruption is reduced to a level that does notsignificantly jeopardize realization of public interests, businessrelations, political life of the country, rule of law, developinghealthy ethical and cultural values of society, health, security andwelfare of citizens and assuming a desired position in European andglobal community of peoples – transformation of corruption infestedsociety into society in which corruption does not exist.

Structure of the Organization

The bodies of Transparency Serbia organization are:

• Assembly, which adopt most important documents of organization and elect other bodies,
• President, who represents organization in Serbia and abroad,
• Board of Directors, which is responsible for strategy and implementing of planned activities,
• Executive Director, who is responsible for the most of daily activities of organization,
• Programme Director, who is responsible for consistency and timeframe of programmes implemented,
• Supervisory board, with control function,
• Council

Beside bodies of organization important role in implementing of Transparency's aims has also:

• Project managers
• Project assistans
• Permanent and temporary associates

Mission

Aneffort towards creating an environment for changing social climate, aswell as creating necessary prerequisites to make the struggle againstcorruption in Serbia be lead in a best possible way and for the outcomeof this struggle to be successful – for the society infested bycorruption to be transformed into one in which corruption does notexist.

Successful struggle against corruption also helps to:

• Reduce poverty and realize social justice

• Build a democratic society and open government

• Develop business relations on more honest and visible bases

• Further people's safety and protection of assets

• Create sustainable development and environment protection.

Challenges that Transparency Serbia will encounter on the road of the realization of its mission:

• Work on overcoming constant threat of political instability anddifficult position of the state will jeopardize attributing adequatesignificance to solving the problems of corruption and strugglingagainst corruption in an adequate fashion.

• Work on increasing understanding of the problems of corruption andanticorruption policy in society, building realistic expectation interms of the outcome of this policy, building credible institutions ofdemocratic society and citizens' readiness to assure that theseinstitutions' work be one in the interest of the public.

• Furthering vision, means and will for the struggle against corruptionand spreading the anticorruption front to all pillars of society'sintegrity.

• Providing necessary funds for adequate activities and realization of the organization's goals

• Providing necessary degree of visibility of the work of theorganization in the public and among those with whom the organizationneeds to work together on achieving its goals.

• Maintaining and constantly furthering the reputation the organization's attained through its activities in the public.

In order to realize its vision and mission, Transparency Serbia will focus on further development:

• Of expert bases in the field of struggle against corruption;

• Adequate programs for the struggle against corruption in Serbia;

• Own capacities and organization structure;

• Regional cooperation with the goal of exchanging experiences and jointeffort in the field of struggle against corruption in South East Europeand beyond;

• Network of organizations and individuals with whom the organization cooperates.

TransparencySerbia intends to remain a leading organization in Serbia in terms ofanticorruption policies, with a clearly defined approach, high level ofexpertise and capacities required for efficient implementation ofanticorruption programs.

Key items of a successful development and application of the strategic framework are:

• Development of quality programs.

• Multiplication of financing levels and

• Development of an adequate organization structure that will be able to deal with challenges.

Programs

In the forthcoming period, the following program priorities have been set:

• Creating conditions for minimizing corruption in the political system;

• Eradicating corruption at the points in which public and privatesectors meet (public procurements, privatization and other);

• Creating mechanisms for removing and efficient solution of the conflictof public and private interest, in favor of the public one;

• Introducing ethical principles in business relations and anticorruption standards in private sector;

• Encouraging the use of mechanisms of eradicating money laundering andorganized crime, reclaiming illegally acquired assets and refunding thedamage to the victims of corruption;

• Development and carrying out of anticorruption education programs andwork with education institutions on creating anticorruption ethicalcodes;

• Increasing responsibility of civil society organizations;

• Furthering efficiency and honesty of institutions and mechanisms thatprotect society from corruption (the police, judiciary, specializedbodies etc) in order to unveil, expose and penalize corruption.

• Expanding the front for struggle against corruption through treatingthis problem along with other issues of vital importance (such asenvironment protection, protection of customers' rights);

• Building mechanisms for measuring the presence of corruption in certainspheres of society and perception of corruption among certaincategories of people in order to examine the success of anticorruptionmeasures and conceive further actions.

Interms of program development, Transparency Serbia will rely on its ownexperts, people who are well acquainted with certain domestic andinternational issues, but also on the experiences of other branches ofTransparency International and capacities of the secretariat ofTransparency International. In this way, Transparency Serbia will be inthe position to conceive and carry out quality anticorruption programs,but also to operate more successfully at a regional level. In view ofthis, Transparency Serbia plans to, parallel to integration processesat regional level, expand the range of programs on the development ofwhich it works, including creating a regional network for struggleagainst corruption. In this respect, Transparency Serbia projects thenecessity of cooperation with expert organizations, specialized in thefields that have mutual meeting points with struggle against corruption(preventing organized crime, protection of human rights, transparencyof public finance, education of citizens', media and public officialsand other).

TransparencySerbia will also pay particular attention to increasing its ownvisibility and being recognizable in public through building an imageof a politically un-biased, expert and active organization, that iscapable of recognizing the very essence of a problem, able to conceive,on its own or in cooperation with others, a solution for overcoming itand prepared to provide help and support for everyone who wishes tostruggle against corruption within their power and through actionsperformed as defined in the statute.

Financial bases development

Bearingin mind the economic situation in which Serbia finds itself, it is notprobable that in the period covered by this Strategic framework thestate and private sector will be able to financially support programsand development of the organization to a major extent. With that inmind, Transparency Serbia is aware that its funding will mostly rely onsupport of international donors' institutions.

• In searching the necessary funds, Transparency Serbia will try toattain financial independence as much as possible, striving towardsobtaining funds for carrying out projects and work of the organizationfrom various sources.

• Transparency Serbia will engage in obtaining less common forms offinancial support for carrying out its programs and for the work of theorganization – by applying for grants from the state budget, localself-governments and the like, developing cooperation with privatesector and carrying out programs that are partly self-financed;

• Transparency Serbia will make sure that information on its funding andaudit reports regarding financial activity are accessible to donors andother subjects (publishing the final account and audit results on theinternet presentation), as well as for the results achieved throughthese funds to be visible and subject to examination.

Development of the organization

Organization development includes:

• Strengthening capacities of the organization (acquiring particularmaterial resources, furthering the existing organization structure andinvolving new individuals in the work of the association) and

• Increased cooperation with other organizations and branches ofTransparency International in the field of struggle against corruption,in order to improve expertise, exchange of experiences and realizationof goals of the organization.

Whilebuilding its own organizational infrastructure, Transparency Serbiawill pay particular attention to furthering the measures relating toresponsibility of officials and engaged persons and their tasks,providing due monitoring and reacting to the development of thesituation in view of realization of program goals, maintainingpolitically unbiased position, involvement of representatives ofdifferent social groups, prevention and solving conflict of interests,development of healthy interpersonal relations, preserving andfurthering the organization's reputation, promoting openness in thework of the organization management and its members as well ofaccessibility of information regarding funding of the organization.