Deretić: Full transparency of the enforcement procedure and Public Bailiffs' work

Assistant Justice Minister Ms Jelena Deretić, who is the Head of the Sector for Judicial Affairs of the Ministry of Justice, participated in a two-day conference Professional Conduct and Responsibility of Public Bailiffs – standards and challenges which was held on 16−17 December in Budva, Montenegro, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro and the Chamber of Bailiffs of Montenegro. She had been invited to speak on a panel about the violations of rules of professional conduct and ethics for public bailiffs.

Ms Deretić spoke about the areas of the legal framework which Serbia’s Ministry of Justice believed needed amending to avoid having the public perceive the level of ethical performance by public bailiffs negatively. She presented options for overcoming potential problems in practice which could bring the professional integrity and ethics of public bailiffs into question. ‘The legislators’ intention with certain novelties introduced by the latest amendments to the Enforcement and Security Act in the Republic of Serbia, was to increase the public’s trust in public bailiffs because they hold public authority. It is important that the bailiffs maintain the public’s trust when exercising that authority through their work and outside of it’, Ms Deretić stressed. For that reason − she explained − the Ministry of Justice had decided to make public bailiffs’ work fully transparent, because full transparency would negate any misinformation and defeat baseless arguments of the parties to enforcement proceedings or any third parties with or without an interest or involvement in those proceedings.

Ms Deretić also spoke about the novelties introduced by the amendments to the Enforcement and Security Act concerning the electronic sale and acquisition of real estate and movable property in enforcement proceedings, and the electronic notice board. Attending the panel discussion were, inter alia, Justice Minister of Montenegro Mr Zoran Pažin, who is also serving as the country’s Deputy Prime Minister for the Political System, Home and Foreign Policy, and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro Ms Aivo Orav.