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
EPS illegally withholds information
EPS AD (Electric Power Company of Serbia), joint stock company unlawfully withholds essential information from the public about its work and the possible disposing of the assets of great value. Transparency Serbia, since 26 May 2023, has been trying to verify with the Electric Power Company of Serbia the allegations…
... detaljnije ...On amendments to the Law on Prevention of Corruption
The draft amendments to the Law on the Prevention of Corruption[1], presented for public discussion, respond to the GRECO's recommendations for Serbia[2] to a limited extent. On the other hand, it does not contain measures to reduce the scope of the "official campaign" and to increase the capacity of control…
... detaljnije ...The new draft law on the management of state-owned enterprises still needs amendments
The new proposal of the Law on the Management of Public Enterprises Owned by the Republic of Serbia is better than the previously withdrawn one. Still, it also needs to be amended, primarily in the area related to preventing misuse of public resources during the election campaign, transitional provisions and…
... detaljnije ...Corrupt risks of free conversion not taken into account
Amendments to the Law on Planning and Construction carry a high corruption risk because the state is giving up potential public revenues in favour of individual companies and, at the same time, threatens legal certainty and equality before the law. The amendments provide for the free conversion of the "right of…
... detaljnije ...What needs to be fixed in the proposal of the law on the management of state enterprises
Transparency Serbia sent the Government of Serbia, the Ministry of Economy and the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption a detailed analysis of corruption risks and other shortcomings in the draft law on managing business companies owned by the Republic of Serbia (SOE). The proposal for a law on companies owned…
... detaljnije ...Directors of SOE outside the reach of anti-corruption regulations
The directors of the largest state-owned companies (SOE), which manage assets worth tens of billions of euros, will not have the obligations, restrictions or control provided for public officials in the Law on Prevention of Corruption if the deputies adopt the proposed Law on the Management of Companies Owned by…
... detaljnije ...One of the laws crumbling the public procurement system repealed
The repeal of the law on line infrastructure[1], which opened up a huge space for discretionary decision-making and had the potential for corruption, is good news after years of crumbling public procurement systems. However, it is essential to emphasize that by deleting this law, only one of the channels for…
... detaljnije ...Change the selection method for independent bodies' managers
The legal rules leave too much room for political parties to influence the election of heads of independent bodies, Transparency Serbia emphasises. Although the majority of MPs decide the election - which is inevitable - the parties also have the sole or decisive say in the candidacy phase. At today's session…
... detaljnije ...Harmful and unexplained amendments to the Statute of ”JP Elektroprivreda Srbije”
Amendments to the articles of founding act and the Statute of ”JP Elektroprivreda Srbije” will have very harmful consequences on the implementation of anti-corruption laws in the largest Serbian public company, Transparency Serbia warns. In addition, the key reasons for changes are not explained and the legal basis is disputed. The…
... detaljnije ...Prosecutor's Office should increase the transparency of its work and investigate all abuses in EPS
The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office (HPPO) in Belgrade, in response to a request for access to information sent by Transparency Serbia, confirmed[1] that there is no evidence that prosecutor Bojana Savović requested a transfer from the Special Department for the Fight against Corruption. At the same time, HPPO did not submit…
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On what bases will the deputies elect the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption
Transparency Serbia sent the Parliament of Serbia an initiative to invite candidates for the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption to the session The law does not provide for the obligation to represent candidates on parliamentary committees or at the plenum. Deputies were provided only job resumes of…
... detaljnije ...Amendments to improve judicial laws
Transparency Serbia calls on the National Assembly to reduce the corruption risks in the set of judicial laws by adopting the amendments submitted by the parliamentarians on the proposal of the TS. Transparency Serbia has submitted proposals for specific amendments to all parliamentary groups in the Assembly, which aim to improve…
... detaljnije ...Presentation of CPI 2022: Serbia fell below the hundredth place on the TI Corruption Perceptions Index world list
Serbia, with the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of 36 fell by five places on the list - to the 101st position in the most significant global ranking of countries according to the perception of corruption in the public sector – CPI 2022. In the previous two years, Serbia had a CPI…
... detaljnije ...The appointment of the Agency's director is delayed; on what basis will MPs decide?
The programs of the three candidates for the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, among whom the National Assembly will choose, do not provide clear answers to all essential questions about the future work of this body. The procedure envisaged by the law does not imply the…
... detaljnije ...Government should be obliged to solve problems in the field of the fight against corruption and access to information
Transparency Serbia calls upon the Committee for Justice, State Administration and Local Self-Government to determine conclusions at today's session (Monday, 26.12.2022, from 2:30 p.m.) that would oblige the Government of Serbia to solve the problems pointed out in the annual reports of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and…
... detaljnije ...The Coalition expresses its concern about the growing non-transparency of institutions
On the occasion of marking the International Day of Access to Information and the Day of the Public's Right to Know, 28 September, the Coalition for Freedom of Access to Information of Public Importance states that the authorities in Serbia are increasingly non-transparent in their work. The right to access information…
... detaljnije ...A decade of violations of the Law on Public Enterprises
The Law on Public Enterprises (PE), adopted precisely ten years ago, did not bring the promised professionalisation of management but became a symbol of open mockery of the rule of Law. Out of 34 companies owned by the Republic of Serbia, obliged by the Law to elect directors in a competition…
... detaljnije ...Fight against transparency and competition instead of the fight against corruption
The International Anti-Corruption Day, December 9, found Serbia in stagnation or regression in almost all areas of importance for the fight against corruption, while among the work priorities of the new Government, there is no mention of anti-corruption plans. One could even say that the fight against transparency and competition, the…
... detaljnije ...The budget shows the consequences of the disastrous EPS management
Serbia's budget for 2023 is insufficiently transparent in the part that refers to the costs incurred due to the poor performance of public companies, primarily the Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPS), and citizens are still without the opportunity to influence priority investments. In its assessment of the budget proposal, the…
... detaljnije ...Law on ministries – explanation without explanation
With this year's amendments to the Law on Ministries, the bad tradition was not betrayed: the organisation of the executive power in Serbia is changed without an explanation of how it will affect the performance of the state administration. Understandably, this encourages speculation that the real reason for those changes…
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The Government illegally appointed acting officials, and the court has not been resolving the lawsuit for declaration of nullity
More than three-quarters of the decisions of the Government of Serbia in 2020 on the appointment of acting officials in the state administration were illegal. In 30% of cases, the Government violated not only the Law on Civil Servants provisions but also the laws of physics, determining that officials would…
... detaljnije ...ODIHR Final Report on the elections in Serbia - Serious problems related to the abuse of public resources and campaign…
Transparency Serbia indicates that the ODIHR Observation Mission, in its Final Report on the April elections, confirmed the TS findings and warnings during the last procedure of amending the electoral legislation and monitoring the election campaign. The final report, published only in English on the ODIHR website, contains comprehensive findings…
... detaljnije ...Illogical and flawed reports on election campaign expenses
More than two billion dinars were spent for the presidential and parliamentary elections campaign, of and only 6.5% came from contributions and donations. Transparency Serbia analyses individual financial submitted reports and noticed numerous illogicalities and deficiencies. More than one billion dinars, i.e. approximately half of the total costs of the campaign…
... detaljnije ...Decision on "national frequencies" without evaluation of mandatory criteria
The decision of the REM Council on the allocation of "national frequencies"[1] is disputed due to the non-application of one of the mandatory legal criteria - "respect for regulations and ethical media standards", but also because of how the Law on Electronic Media and the REM Rulebook govern the decision-making…
... detaljnije ...How will the budget money be distributed for the regular work of the parties, and what do the reports on…
The announcement of the results of the parliamentary elections, three months after they were completed in the vast majority of polling stations, will significantly change the parties' financial position. In the first half of 2022, about 691 million dinars from the Serbian budget were already distributed to parties based on…
... detaljnije ...Financing of the campaign for the presidential elections
First Analysis Reports Official reports on the financing of the campaign for the presidential elections confirm the findings of the apparent dominance of the candidates of the ruling party in relation to all others, which are a consequence of the legal rules on the distribution of funds from the budget for campaign…
... detaljnije ...Fifth Round of GRECO Evaluation: Important recommendations and chance to fulfil them this time
Transparency Serbia assesses that the fifth round of the GRECO evaluation contains several significant recommendations, the fulfilment of which could fundamentally improve the legal framework for the fight against corruption. At the same time, the new parliamentary convocation and the new Government of Serbia will have the opportunity to approach…
... detaljnije ...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 ...Budget transparency in Serbia at the level of the global average
Serbia has made moderate progress and is in 59th place out of 120 countries in the international Open Budget Index (OBI) survey with 46 points out of a possible 100, which ranks it among countries with "limited budget transparency". An improvement of six points compared to the previous survey (from 2019)…
... 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…
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