Serbian Officials Report Assets in Anticorruption Measure

Zorana Markovic, the director of Serbia's Anti-Corruption Agency, has announced that more than 95 per cent of state officials have fulfilled their obligation to submit reports on their assets.

Speaking at a press conference in Belgrade on Tuesday, Markovic said that 14,643 officials filed their report within the deadline, which was February 1, whereas 1,300 reports were submitted after the prescribed deadline and with incomplete data.

Details on property owned by Serbian officials should be made public on the website by the end of March. In the meantime, experts from the agency will start the process of verifying the submitted data.

Cedomir Cupic, president of the board of the Agency for the Fight Against Corruption, told Balkan Insight that there are two mechanisms for verifying the submitted data.

“One way is if citizens point out some irregularities they saw on the website and provide us with relevant argumentation for questioning the submitted data, then the expert team from the agency kicks off the investigation on the case. The other way is our regular checking of the submitted reports that will be led group by group, from top to bottom… president, advisors, ministers etc.” Cupic said, stressing that the process is slow as it is a delicate one.

He added that the verification would be made with the help of all relevant institutions which have a legal obligation to cooperate with the agency, including the tax authorities, special police, and prosecution if needed, as the cases would be part of the corruption and crime. The measures that may be undertaken if irregularities are found range from a warning to the filing of criminal charges.

However, the fact that tens of thousands of reports will be verified by only four experts raises doubts about the effectiveness of the control mechanisms. The total number of employees in the agency is currently 13, and experts say that there should be close to 200 employees if the institution wants to adequately verify and investigate all the submitted data.

The law envisions fines of between 10,000 and 50,000 dinars (100 to 500 euros) for tardiness in submitting the reports, but also six months to five years' imprisonment for officials who do not report their property, give out false information or conceal information. If an official is convicted, he will be fired from its post and be banned from any public office for ten years from the date of the conviction.

For more information, please see Balkan Insight Analysis: Balkan Officials Find Ways Round Transparency Laws