“It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Ministry of Justice is the state organ which has met all the State Audit Institution’s (SAI) recommendations on the ways committees and temporary working bodies within the Ministry were formed”, Justice Minister Nela Kuburović stated at today’s closing conference “How resources audits impacted the performance of state authorities in Serbia’ which was held by the SAI at Hotel Metropol.
Minister Kuburović said that much of the Ministry’s purview concerned tasks within the justice sector functioning which often required different committees being formed. She added that in the previous three years, the Ministry had done a lot to improve the work of those committees and present their work in a more transparent manner, especially when it came to committee members who received compensation for their work with the committee. The Justice Minister noted that the Ministry of Justice had successfully launched an application which recorded the work of all committees’ and allows full access to information about their work.
Discussing the work of committees formed in the Ministry of Justice, Minister Kuburović said that the Bar Exam committees had existed for decades, but that once the Ministry expanded its purview which came with greater responsibilities, forming new committees was required. Those concerned the work of public notaries, public bailiffs, mediators, experts, interpreters, and public notary exam and bailiff exams. The Minister noted that it was precisely because of the SAI recommendations that the Ministry could present all the committees in a transparent manner and the criteria for selecting committee members.
The Minister added that the Ministry of Justice committee in charge of allocating ‘opportunity funds’ – non-expended prosecution budget due to non-opportune cases – was a good example where SAI recommendations on how public funds needed to be spent and how the public funds expenditure process itself needed to be very transparent. “In the three years of the calls for allocation of opportunity funds being published, over 1 billion dinars of public funds has been expensed in a very transparent manner allowing citizens to see just how public spending was conducted“, Kuburović highlighted. The Minister said that there was great control over funds expenditure which ensured any funds not expensed for the designated activity or project within a prescribed timeline would be returned to the Budget of the Republic of Serbia.
Explaining the works of internal budget control, Minister Kuburović noted that the Ministry of Justice had wide purview which also included controling the work and the funds expenditure of a high number of judicial organs. “The Ministry’s internal auditor was very active and zealous. Controls of the courts and public prosecutors’ offices have been performed, disciplinary actions have been initiated, some court presidents have been relieved of their duties, and irregularities discovered during internal audits resulted in amendments to the bylaws passed by the Ministry, the High Judicial Council, and the State Prosecutorial Council, especially with respect to the costs of court proceedings“, Kuburović emphasised.
“Financial control is extremely important in fight against corruption. That is why cooperation with the SAI has been included in Chapter 23 Action Plan”, the Minister said and concluded that the Ministry of Justice would continue to improve financial control in cooperation with the SAI.