TS presented results of research and ranking LTI 2019
Transparency Serbia presented results of research and ranking of all municipalities and cities in Serbia - LTI 2019. The most transparent in Serbia are Plandište with index 67 and Novi Pazar and Paraćin with 66, while average index for the complete territory of Serbia is 40.
The largest challenge to increasing transparency of municipalities in Serbia represents inexistence of national policy to deal with this matter, stated program director of Transparency Serbia Nemanja Nenadić during presentation of the results.
He said that without such policy, good results are most often consequence of dedication of individuals within municipalities. Nenadić emphasized that the best results are in those areas where there is explicit legal obligation, like in public procurements. But even in such cases when 80% or 90% of municipalities has positive indicators, there is no room for satisfaction because it means that 10 or 20% of municipalities does not fulfill even their legal obligations.
Zlatko Minić from TS pointed out that illustrative example are public enterprises, the worst evaluation of municipalities, although there is legal obligation by the Law from 2012 and 2016 to publish certain documents. Even today, some PE do not even have their own web-sites.
All materials related to research can be downloadedfrom the web-site of TS.
Deputy President of municipality Plandište - Goran Donevski said that that municipality, compared to previous research, in which scored49, is now evaluated with 67. He added that thankfully to the results of research of TS it is clear now in which areas it should make some progress.
President of municipality Paraćin -Saša Paunović, said that that municipality for years now records good results in the area of transparency and stated that merit goes to those that did their job, and not the politicians.
Mayor of NoviPazar -Nihat Biševac pointed out that since the research in 2015 till today, transparency index increased significantly thankfully, according to his words, to the desire of local management to increase the citizens trust into local institutions.
Shanley Pinchotti, director of the Office for Democratic and Economic Development of the USAID, indicated that continuous monitoring will help gain an insight into results of the program of support to municipalities by that office.
Milan Marinović, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Protection of Personal Data, said that some of the results of this research will be of significance for the work of that institution.