Category: News and Events

Serbia Tailors 2012 Budget to Address Crisis

Serbia’s budget for next year will have to be restricted to meet rules on limiting deficit and public debt in a time of economic crisis, experts at National Budget Forum say.

Around 130 economic experts gathered at the third National Budget Forum organised by BIRN Serbia and the NGO Pro Concept in Belgrade on Wednesday.

Opening the forum, the Economy Minister, Nebojsa Ciric, said the 2012 budget will include funds to help stimulate the economy and funds for investment in a time of crisis.

The minister noted that the budget for next year will have to have a development component and provide investment for infrastructure projects as over 90 per cent of all recent investments in Serbia were targeted near the Corridor 10 highway.

Ciric also said that VAT will not be increased by the end of the mandate of this government in spring and that either this or the next government will have to reduce taxes.

The 2012 budget is expected to be adopted in parliament on December 15.

Zvonko Obradovic, head of the Serbian business registry, APR, said data showed money aimed for regional development was instead spent on other purposes.

This was the third annual budget forum. Its aim is to gather stakeholders from the field of public finances in Serbia and create a platform for wider public debate in the field.

National Budget Forum, envisaged as a multi-stakeholder discussion platform, brings together lawmakers, academics, the professional community, the private sector and NGO activists interested in public finances and budget transparency.   

The topic of the forum was Enhancing competitiveness – the difference between subsidies and state aid.

Other key speakers included Vladimir Vuckovic, a member of the Fiscal Council, an independent body in charge of monitoring budget spending, Dusan Vujovic, professor of the Faculty of Economics, Finance and Administration, Zvonko Obradovic, director of the Agency for Business Registers and Anthony Sinclair, adviser on macroeconomic issues and financial markets for the USAID Project better business conditions.

The main objective of the forum is to positively affect the process of planning and managing the Serbian budget through broad public dialogue. The forum aims to become a place for formulating budget priorities, affecting economic policies and strengthening the accountability of the government and parliament in the process.

This will be the third time the National Budget Forum has taken place following the success of the first, held in 2009, and the second, held in 2010.

BIRN Serbia: Good Governance Campaign Launched

BIRN Serbia in cooperation with the public relations and advertising agency Executive Group on December 1 start implementation of a public campaign promoting good governance in 25 municipalities of south and southwest Serbia.

The consortium won the UNOPS/PROGRES programme tender, published in August.

Recognizing the need to develop participatory, accountable and transparent governance and respect for human rights, BIRN and Executive Group have designed a campaign to promote and raise awareness of the core principles of good governance, motivate civic participation in decision-making, increase understanding of the roles and competences of local government and advocate utilization of good governance mechanisms that are applicable in the targeted municipalities.

The concept of good governance is one of the crucial crosscutting elements contributing to the PROGRES Programme overall’s goal of enhancing stability and socio-economic development in south and southwest Serbia.

PROGRES, a municipal partnership programme, is a joint action of the EU and the Swiss and Serbian governments. It is designed to enhance the stability and socio-economic development in south and southwest Serbia. The programme is implemented by UN Office for Project Services, UNOPS.    

The key principles of good governance – accountability, transparency, participation, efficiency, non-discrimination – should be introduced in the work of local self-government supported by other stakeholders such as businesses, media and civil society and be recognized by general population.

The campaign will promote five principles of good governance and their importance for local socio-economic development through a custom-made set of tools.

These include wide dissemination of promotional materials such as leaflets and brochures, a media campaign (using traditional and online media), and public events along with advocacy efforts and support for citizens’ participation drives.

The campaign will also appreciate the multi-ethnic setting of south and southwest Serbia.  

BIRN Serbia and Executive group decided to combine their expertise – Executive in the field of strategic communication and BIRN in media development and civic activism –  to jointly contribute to programme’s success. 

Life in Kosovo airs debate on privatization of KEK

Tonight, Life in Kosovo will air a debate on the privatisation of the electricity distribution network of the Kosovo Energy Corporation, KEK.

What are the terms of this privatisation? What assets of KEK, formerly ElektroKosova, are being sold to private companies and at what price? Which companies are interested in this? How will the private company solve the problem of the lack of billing of 40% of the energy generated? What does the American Ombudsman have to say on Kosovo’s complaints that this privatisation process is not transparent? How will our government make sure that the billing problems which continue to take place in Albania following its privatisation of distribution, will not take place in Kosovo as well? Will the Kosovo taxpayer continue to subsidise the electricity theft even after privatisation?
 

To discuss these issues in the privatisation, Jeta Xharra has invited:

Fllanza Hoxha, from KEK’s distribution privatisation project;
Nezir Sinani, from the civil society;
Izet Mustafa, from the Independent Energy Union of Kosovo, SPEK;
Avni Alidemaj, head of the distribution division, KEK.
 

Within this show, BIRN will broadcast an interview with an employee from KEK who will show which part of the distribution will be privatised.

 

After the show, BIRN will broadcast a reportage which speaks of mysterious arsons in the village of Kernica, in Klina.

Serbian ministries spent millions for the media services

Serbian ministries spent more than half million euros in 2010 on media promotions that appear to violate the law, reveals Birn Serbia’s web portal “Make your own budget” (Skockajte budzet).

Total 500,000 euros of public funds were spent last year on advertising, TV broadcasting and using services of news agencies under the term of “services under contract” and “specialised services”, financial reports that BIRN Serbia has collected from all 18 ministries show.

These include calling on people to take part in elections or referendums, measures to be taken in case of a general emergency, humanitarian campaigns, public tenders and certain economic activities.

The adverts appear to violate the terms of Serbia’s Law on Advertising, which says ministries may not promote party political interests but may only advertise activities and measures that meet certain criteria to do with the public good.

One of the most questionable advertising campaigns in 2010 was by the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning.

It spent over 200,000 euro on matters qualified as “co-production services and television programming in the campaign ‘Clean up Serbia'”.

The ministerial report does not specify which media outlets received this cash. Nor has anyone seen the TV advertising campaign referred to, nor does it exist on the ministry’s website.

Other campaigns include one by Health Ministry, while Ministry of Human and Minority Rights spent over 60,000 euro on promotions in local media.

Only four of the 18 ministries did not spend any money on media services within “services under the contract” or on “specialised services”: the finance, agriculture, infrastructure and interior ministries.

These data are part of the bigger research BIRN Serbia conducted, looking into spending of budget money of all ministries in 2010 year under the term of “services under contract” and “specialised services”, which are considered to be the least transparent budgetary lines. 

This research is based on the data collected by application of Free Access to Public Information Law on whit in what our web portal had insight into Ministries’ official documents. Full report on the research results will be published in the coming weeks. 

BIRN Guide Digging Deeper now available to buy online

BIRN is announcing that Digging Deeper: a Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans is now available to buy online. This unique handbook showcases interesting investigative stories and individual journalistic successes, as well as providing an overview of investigative techniques.

This is the second edition of the guide, which BIRN has decided to publish in response to the high demand of journalists requiring a guide to investigative journalism, which resulted in all copies of the first edition being quickly distributed.

Digging Deeper offers insight into various databases available in the Balkan region and tips for practitioners, as the most useful elements for all journalists.

This guide is intended for all journalists seeking to improve their investigative skills and will also inspire others to move into the field of investigative journalism.

Life in Kosovo analyses the situation in Northern Kosovo

On Thursday, Life in Kosovo broadcasts an exclusive programme from northern Kosovo.

Questions covered will include: What hides behind the barricades in the north of the country? How do Albanians feel about it, and what account do Serbs give about the blocked streets? What message was brought to Serbs by Russians in military uniforms? How relaxed are KFOR peacekeepers in Mitrovica near the barricades?
 

Journalist Muhamet Hajrullahu stayed for a week in different parts of the north of the country, and will give an exclusive story about the Albanians and Serbs living in the north.
 

After the show, BIRN will broadcast a report from journalist Alban Selimi, who describes how experts from the United States’ prestigious Harvard University came to Kosovo to confirm that its people are living beneath the most damaging chimneys in Europe.
 

BIRN will also broadcast another report by Alban, showing how doctors forged documents for the sake of a colleague.
 

Afterwards, journalist Edona Musa will present a report revealing more forgery, this time for grades and job contracts in schools.
 

Finally, the ‘Youth in Kosovo’ section will feature a report about the ATOMI project and its selection process for finding young people with exceptional intelligence.

Fifth training session on the control of public finances: Interpreting financial statements

Last weekend saw BIRN Serbia organise its fifth successive training session for journalists, covering monitoring and control of public finances, at Arandjelovac’s Hotel Izvor. This training is part of the multi-year “Eye on public finance” programme, which BIRN Serbia is implementing in conjunction with expert organisation Pro Concept and the support of the British Embassy in Belgrade.

The first day saw journalists who participated in the training given the opportunity to gain insight into a case study covering the financial statements of Milo Djuraskovic, which were presented to participants during a four-hour presentation by Miroslava Milenovic, a court expert in forensic accounting.

Miroslava informed journalists about the way to examine financial statements that are public documents, in order to efficiently and quickly draw conclusions and access information that they need to uncover the numerous irregularities of the financial implementation of projects and irregularities in the operations of certain companies, in this case the Nibens group.

“In Serbia at present financial crime and tax evasion are dominant, but also corruption within financial crime. The recent “Nibens” scandal is one of the best indicators of how money is pumped through rigged tenders and irregular procurement,” said Milenovic.

She explained to journalists how to interpret the structure of financial statements and how to spot key indicators of money laundering, as well as how they should seek the causes of such corruption in the period prior to the privatisation of public enterprises in Serbia before the year 2000.

BIRN Serbia representative Slobodan Georgiev spoke to the gathered journalists about what can be learnt from the financial statements of the Nibens Group and public company ’Putevi Srbije’ (Roads of Serbia) and how that information can be used to research an article.

“Data that serves journalists to investigate something like, for instance, the ’road – asphalt’ mafia, is publicly available, but it must not only be read carefully, but also read in the right way. These are things that one learns and everyone who deals with investigative journalism must know how to identify this date and the ways that such data can be used.”

Ruzica Stojmenovic, an expert of the Business Registers Agency, presented the agency’s database and explained the models used to control the quality of revisions and to read the notes for revision reports that explain how a report was made and what information it is possible to use when writing a news item.

She explained how to interpret inflows and outflows of business activity, investment and financial activities and actions that serve to show the inflow and outflow of funds from a company, but also how to recognise the importance of “cash-flow”.

“Cash flow is the sum of net results, calculated depreciation and long-term reserves. This means that the net is the result of new value created after all expenses have been covered. These are costs that do not include cash outflows and that is the company’s cash. This money ensures the security of a company. “

Stojmenovic explained to training participants the types of financial statements, the deadlines for their submission, who compiles them and who are the individuals responsible for maintaining these documents.

Explaining to journalists how they can access data on entrepreneurs and companies that are not required to submit reports to the Business Registers Agency, she said that one useful address could be the Tax Office and the Statistical Office.

“At the agency we talk about those whose reports we have, while the Statistical Office combines the data from the Tax Administration and the Agency for Business Registers, so they have a more-or-less clearer picture than us and if you cannot find some of the reports at our agency you can search for them at these addresses,” said Stojmenovic, who utilised part of the training session to clarify the financial terms used in reports.

Following discussions with agencies’ representatives, training participants were able to pose questions to representatives of the Public Procurement Office, including director Predrag Jovanovic and his assistants Danijela Bokan and Daliborka Sreckov.

Danijela Bokan presented the new portal of the Public Procurement Office, explaining the model used to create it and search methods for concluded public procurement contracts and annual reports on public procurement.

“Every client shall submit a report for the previous quarter and the deadline is the tenth day of the next month. Everything that has been implemented and all contracts that have been concluded must be submitted. This is important in order to know when you can get what information,” said Bokan, introducing the system for the submission of public procurement reports.

She noted that around 3,500 clients regularly submit their reports, while 12,000 clients do not do so, despite being legally obliged to deliver their reports. According to her estimate, there are 120,000 clients in Serbia.

As she hgihlighted, reports are published on the portal of the Public Procurement Office with a delay of one annual quarter, as the Office is unable to more quickly process all data.

President of the Public Procurement Office, Predrag Jovanovic, spoke about the agency’s plans for the coming period and explained that an initiative had been submitted calling for the Office to submit reports on implemented activities and procurement plans for the year ahead, as well as clearly defining what are public procurements and what are not during the preparation of the annual procurement plan.

He noted that interest exists to abolish the Public Procurement Office and that the ultimate result of this would be the centralisation of public procurement, which he believes would not be the best solution.

Following presentations, representatives of the Public Procurement Office answered questions posed by journalists, who expressed their own satisfaction with the training when summarising their impressions of the knowledge gained.

 

Culture Watch Journalism Team Met in Belgrade

Serbian journalistic team – Pedja Popovic, Branislava Lopar, Jovan Ristic and Nemanja Cabric, from the first and second year of BICCED Project (The Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation, Exchange and Development ), gathered in Belgrade together with Executive Director of BITEF Festival, Jelena Knezevic and Director of SeeCult.org Vesna Milosavljevic to discuss the end of the first cycle of investigations on cultural issues in Serbia.

Journalists gathered the facts and multimedia material from the cities of Leskovac, Vranje and Nis in southern Serbia, and Novi Sad, Subotica and Indjiija in the northern province of Vojvodina. The investigation will be focusing on cultural decline in towns in Serbia due to the country’s centralized system and analysis on how the culture in Serbia suffers because of a failure to pass laws and legislation in the field of culture and due to lack of money invested in that specific field of society.

When completed, the investigation will be presented at a round table in Belgrade, where it is goverenment officials, representatives of cultural institutions and organisations are expected to be present. Participants at the round table will have the unique opportunity to discuss the main issues on cultural decline in the country.

The investigative report containing multimedia material will be published on Balkan Insight’s spicialised page Culture Watch.

The Status of Press Freedom in Kosovo

On September 21, 2011, Kosovo’s leading investigative journalist and host of “Life in Kosovo” current affairs debate programme on public television RTK, Jeta Xharra, addressed the status of the media and freedom of the press in Kosovo at the United States Institute of Peace, USIP, in Washington.

Xharra discussed issues such as the ramifications when a journalist broadcasts and discloses information about powerful individuals including leading politicians and businessmen.

She further addressed the concern on whether Kosovo’s justice system can protect journalists from death threats and intimidation, problems that have marred journalism in Kosovo since after the war. In addition, the importance of international actors to preserving media freedoms and the role that EULEX played in protecting freedom of the press was also debated during the lecture in Washington.

The lecture attracted attention from an audience of Balkan experts and representatives of different institutions based in Washington DC, who participated in discussion by raising questions and sharing experiences from their countries related to the freedom of press.

“The United States Institute of Peace is a good forum for journalists from all over the world. It enables them to share their experiences of freedom of press in their countries,” noted Xharra.

The lecture was followed by Xharra’s 10 min interview in the Albanain section of the Voice of America.

 

Life in Kosovo discusses the EU Progress Report

Tonight, Life in Kosovo will broadcast a debate on the findings of the EU progress report for 2011.

Questions to be covered include: What do representatives of Kosovo’s political parties think about this report? According to the report, has the country progressed or regressed? Which sectors are most criticised by the report? How well are corruption and organised crime being fought?  What are the findings of EU Progress Report on the freedom of speech in Kosovo?

 

To discuss these and related issues, Jeta Xharra has invited the following guests to the studio:

 

Hajredin Kuqi, deputy prime minister of Kosovo;
Vjosa Osmani, a deputy from the LDK;
Ardian Gjini, a deputy from the AAK; and
Visar Ymeri, a deputy from Vetëvendosje.

 

Before the debate, BIRN will re-broadcast a report  from September 2010 about an incident in the Municipal Court of Klina, in which former judge Kole Puka, along with lawyer Lon Palushaj and in cooperation with Dr Mit’hat Jakupi declared a citizen from this municipality to be disabled, and benefited from 16,800 euros on his behalf.

 

In 2010, the Association of Professional Journalists of Kosova awarded BIRN’s investigative report as the best TV report on the fight against corruption. This week, all three people involved were arrested. The police managed to find some other similar cases, resulting in the arrest of 13 more people. 

 

During the debate, BIRN will also broadcast a report by journalist Muhamet Hajrullahu, which considers the opinions of key decision makers about the EU Progress Report, including the political parties in the Assembly, Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi and the Assembly President, Jakup Krasniqi.