’Corruption is a cancer to our modern-day society which needs to be fought on all levels as it negates democratic values and the rule of law, risking security and preventing economic growth and development’, Justice Minister Nela Kuburović stated at today’s international conference on ’Implementation of Corruption Prevention Mechanisms’ held in Belgrade on 13-14 December.
Minister Kuburović added that corruption was the most dangerous enemy to a country’s and a society’s progress and that funds spent on anti-corruption measures in fact belonged to schools, hospitals and citizens. ’Fight against corruption is a challenge for any government, it entails an all rounded approach to setting-up a fighting mechanism – represive and preventive ones on all levels’, Kuburović commented. She added that tangible results could be achieved exclusively through a strong political will and a determined management, saying that the Government of the Republic of Serbia had set fight against corruption as one of its most important political objectives.
Minister Kuburović stressed that in the previous two years Serbia had passed a set of anti-corruption statutes among which was the Organisation and Competencies of the Government Authorities in Fighting Organised Crime, Terrorism and Corruption Act the application of which had commenced on 1 March 2018. She explained that owing to that legislation Serbia had gained four regional anti-corruption centres for the first time (one in Belgrade, one in Novi Sad, one in Niš and one in Kraljevo) which, in combination with the amendments to the Criminal Code which had introduced new criminal offences with elements of corruption, had equipped the police, the prosecutor’s offices and the courts with a powerful weapon with repressive effects on corruption.
On the subject of statutory solutions of prevention, Kuburović said that in early Novermber 2018 the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia had passed the Lobbying Act which brought novelties to Serbia’s legal system and increased the Anti-Corruption Agency’s role significantly. In addition – she noted -, the new Anti-Money Loundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act had also been adopted. ’We are soon expecting the adoption of the new Corruption Prevention Act which regulates in greater detail the rules on preventing conflict of interest, public functions accumulation, public officials reporting personal property and income, as well as the Anti-Corruption Agency’s legal status, competencies, organisation and work’, Kuburović stated, pointing out that with the adoption of the Act, Serbia had met one of the GRECO recommendations. ’With such a legislation, the Government of the Republic of Serbia has secured an efficient anti-corruption normative framework’, Kuburović highlighted and concluded by saying that in today’s modern democratic society fight against corruption was one’s right as well as obligation.
The ’Implementation of Corruption Prevention Mechanisms’ Conference was organised under Italy’s OSCE Chairmanship on the occassion of the International Anti-Corruption Day.