Tag: Serbia

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.

 

The event took place in Novi Pazar, Uzice, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Nis and Vranje and included the participation of hundreds of citizens who discussed their views on local media and the topics they believe to be important for the communities they live in.

In terms of coordination and production, this is the biggest event organised by BIRN Serbia’s office in collaboration with colleagues from the Belgrade office, local coordinators and local NGOs, and with the technical support of Telekom Serbia.

The action’s implementation included the direct participation of some 60 people – BIRN coordinators, local coordinators, technicians and volunteers. The event was also broadcast live over the Internet and watched by thousands of people, while the campaign’s Facebook group has grown to include nearly 1,500 members in just two weeks.

During the course of preparing the event, BIRN Serbia covered thousands of miles travelling across Serbia, spoke to dozens of people at the local level, made several thousand phone calls and sent hundreds of emails.

Video material collected during this campaign will be distributed to local media, while part of it will be included on the campaign’s Facebook page.

The citizens who participated in the “Five cents for media” event agreed on one thing: local media is important for local communities, but should deal more with citizen’s daily problems and spend less energy reporting on the activities of local leaders and national politicians.

BIRN Serbia is implementing this campaign with the assistance of IREX Serbia.

In the period between noon and two p.m., anybody interested in participating will be able to enter the “Open studio” to share their ideas and express their views about local media; ask questions about issues they would like to know more about and suggest topics relevant to their local community.

The event will be broadcast live via Internet TV from all six towns, while an additional direct transmission link will be available on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/5parazamedije

Through this action we are seeking to improve communication between citizens and the media, thereby contributing to the creation of more high quality local media content.

The street event is part of a broader campaign that includes local media and civil society organisations and the Facebook page acts a platform for visitors to see photos, videos and news about activities taking place as part of the “Five cents for Media” campaign.

All interested citizens are hereby invited to participate in this action, take their place in an open studio and be reporters for a day!

UNDP awarded Aleksandar Radojevic and Vladimir Djordjevic for the best media article on monitoring public expenditure in Serbia. Both award recipients participated in a journalists’ training programme for monitoring public finances, which was organised by BIRN Serbia in 2010.

A series of texts entitled “Millions of control” was published via the web portal sumadijapress.rs, while journalists who participated in the training programme also authored several articles for the website skockajtebudzet.rs.

The works were judged by UNDP media issues representatives and prominent local journalists with experience of investigative reporting and reporting on transparency and public expenditure, both of whom were nominated by journalists’ associations UNS and NUNS.

In an attempt to focus on issues of transparency and public reporting on the spending of budgetary funds in Serbia and contribute to efforts aimed at combating corruption, UNDP organised a contest for research texts dealing with the monitoring of public expenditure in Serbia.

The contest was organised under the auspices of the UNDP project “Strengthening mechanisms of accountability in public finances”. This project’s aim is to support the establishment of effective and sustainable mechanisms for monitoring public finances.

Read the articles of journalists who attended the training programme for the monitoring of public finances via the following links:

Kragujevac millions out of control

A child on a business trip

Stray dogs last year “ate” 9.5 million dinars

The research, carried out by ProConcept and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, records a positive trend in the improvement of education and health services since 2000. However, this improvement is not sufficient for people to express satisfaction with the services.

The project’s authors concluded that complete modernisation and public sector reform could only be carried successfully if people were involved in planning and developing the system and if clear public policy objectives were determined.

When it comes to the health system, the research identifies progress in the field of preventive medicine and supply work with patients, says BIRN contributor Sasa Randjelovic.

According to him, patients and health care staff see the key problems as administration, long waiting times for specialist examinations and diagnoses, as well as insufficient time available for review.

Explaining that Serbia currently allocates 5.7 per cent of GDP to health care, Randjelovic adds that the state should change the funding of health care and the structure of employees in health institutions.

“The analysis shows that employees in the health system offer modest support for the reforms carried out and that more than half of respondents believe the state has the greatest benefit from health care reforms,” notes Randjelovic.

According to the research, the education system proved relatively ineffective at training to solve practical problems, networking and the application of knowledge to analyse and develop students’ motivation.

The results show that students’ parents and teachers agree that the biggest shortcoming of the education system is that youngsters are not taught how to apply their acquired knowledge in work processes.

The results’ presentation and following debate were also attended by Gordana Comic, vice president of the Serbian Parliament, as well as representatives of parliamentary committees and experts.

The aim of the research was to determine how funds from the state budget would lead to improved health and education services and whether people recognize the success of public policies in these sectors.

The survey was carried out for the second year running on a sample of 1,198 individuals in 15 towns and cities across Serbia. The survey is part of BIRN’s “Eye on Public Finances” project.

“Eye on Public Finances” is realised by ProConcept and BIRN Serbia, with the support of the British Embassy in Serbia. Ipsos, a strategic market research agency, participated in the creation of the sample by defining the questionnaire and statistical analysis.

The main topics of the IFront conference were web advertising and brand positioning on the internet, as well as how to carry out a successful start-up project.

As in previous years, guests again included professionals from some of the world’s largest IT companies and this year iFront enabled them to hear the experiences and advice of successful people from the world of internet business.

Participating in the two panel discussions, the conference’s main guest was Google representative Daniel Clemens. Geruk Constantine, co-founder of LinkedIn, also represented his IT company and spoke on personal and marketing companies, the internet and the social networks it represents. 

Representatives of the Business Angel Network of Serbia and Croatia also participated in panel discussion, offering presentations of several ways of financing start-up projects.

Companies Ringier Axel Springer and B92 also had their representatives, who addressed web marketing and web consulting. B92 web portal director, Vladimir Novakovic, addressed the issue of building a brand on the Internet under specific domestic market conditions, as well as how to use social media, blogs and other online formats to carry out promotions.

On the other hand, Jovan Protic, Blic online director, presented models of retail via the Internet, relying on relationships between the customer and the market in the digital media domain.

BIRN representatives were honoured as iFront conference delegates.

Under the name ’Integration: Combining Ethnic and Democratic Principles’, BIRN Serbia organised on Wednesday an international forum that aims to serve as a platform for the domestic and foreign public to gain insight into current developments in the region, and for those involved in initiatives in the area.

Mr. Ivica Dacic, Deputy Prime Minister in the Serbian Government, Mr. Bill Longhurst, Charge d’Affaires of the UK embassy in Serbia, Mr. Riza Haljimi, Member of the Serbian Parliament, Mr. Thomas Moore, Acting Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia and Ms. Gordana Igric, BIRN Regional Director, opened the debate.

The forum, organised under the auspices of the British Embassy in Belgrade and the Balkan Fund for Democracy, features two panels. The first focuses on education as the cornerstone of successful integration. Participants in the second panel will discuss the effectiveness of international aid sent to the region.

The first international forum on the development of South Serbia and possibilities for the increased integration of ethnic Albanians into Serbian state institutions was organised by BIRN Serbia in April 2010 in Belgrade on the occasion of the first anniversary of the reinstatement of the Coordinating Body for South Serbia.

The conference was entitled ‘South Serbia: From Frozen Conflict to Sustainable Solutions: Opportunities for Long-Term Integration and Development of the Region’.

The southern Serbia municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja are home to the country’s largest ethnic Albanian population and are among the least developed in Serbia. High unemployment rates and an average wage lower than the state average of about 350 euros are two of the many challenges facing the area.

In 2000 and 2001, the region was the scene of an armed conflict between state security forces and local ethnic Albanian militants in the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.

 

Economic Development, Education Needed in South Serbia

A Serbian MP from South Serbia says that the region needs economic development and improvements to education, in a speech at a BIRN conference on the integration of the area.

Riza Halimi, the only ethnic Albanian MP in the Serbian Parliament, said that the economy and education are the most crucial areas in need of improvement in South Serbia, during a speech at a conference on the integration of minority communities in South Serbia into the country’s wider society and institutions.

South Serbia is home to the country’s largest ethnic Albanian population and is among the least developed regions in Serbia. Extremely high unemployment rates and an average wage lower than the state average of about 350 euros are two of the many challenges facing the area.

Halimi said that economic situation has worsened since 2001 and that the recognition of diplomas is one of several unresolved issues.

“There is no perspective for a future here, which is why the majority of asylum seekers are from here,” he said. “They are not political asylum seekers but those who failed to find a solution to their problems in their hometown and are now looking for it in EU member states,” he added.

Thousands of Serbian citizens from south Serbia have attempted to seek asylum in EU states since Serbia was granted visa-free travel to the EU in December 2009.

Halimi was speaking at a conference in Belgrade that gathered more than 100 Serbian and foreign participants to address the pressing issues facing South Serbia.

Under the name ’Integration: Combining Ethnic and Democratic Principles’, BIRN Serbia organised on Wednesday an international forum that aims to serve as a platform for the domestic and foreign public to gain insight into current developments in the region, and for those involved in development initiatives in the area.

The forum, organised under the auspices of the British Embassy in Belgrade and the Balkan Fund for Democracy, was opened in Belgrade’s Sava Centre by BIRN regional director Gordana Igric.

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic also addressed the movement north over the past year as people escaped a difficult economic situation in south Serbia and sought asylum in the EU.

“They are seeking asylum, forgetting that it is a political category,” he said. Dacic went on to say that more than 95 per cent of those people have been rejected as they do not suffer political persecution.

In an effort to counter this, Dacic said, the government is investing greater efforts to integrate minorities into state institutions and improve their prospects for the future.

Milan Markovic, Serbia’s minister of human and minority rights, public administration and local-self government, explained that the government is working hard to release books in the Albanian language.

“The national minority council has recently been established and this is the body which is supposed to take over the issue and try to resolve it,” Markovic said.

He went on to say that affirmative action takes place in employment in public institutions. Language is a barrier, he noted, but both Serbs and ethnic Albanians discriminate against each other in government bodies.

Education Minister Zarko Obradovic stressed his ministry’s willingness to improve the educational system in south Serbia and ensure that the communities in the region can access their rights.

“In order to reach this goal, we need to have professional educators as well as money, just wishing is not enough,” he said.

Members of the diplomatic corps and international organisations in Serbia also took part in Wednesday’s conference. They commended goals which have been reached while encouraging the Serbian government to continue its efforts.

Bill Longhurst, chargé d’affaires in the British Embassy in Belgrade, noted several positive improvements which had been made. These include establishing a multi-ethnic government in Bujanovac, one of the municipalities in south Serbia, promising steps in the field of education and healthcare, and the formation of the national minority council.

Thomas Moore, acting head of the OSCE mission to Serbia, told forum participants that the climate has changed regarding the integration of ethnic Albanians in South Serbia.

He said that the Coordinating Body for South Serbia, which organises cooperation between local and state bodies, is working on several important issues, including a multi-ethnic university in Bujanovac, a maternity ward in Presevo and resolving issues surrounding the use of Albanian language.

“The OSCE remains committed to providing whatever support Serbia needs on its progress towards the EU,” he said.

 

Pace of Integration in South Serbia ‘Not Satisfactory’

Representatives of ethnic Albanians from South Serbia are not satisfied with the pace of the region’s integration into wider Serbian society and institutions.

Shaip Kamberi, mayor of Bujanovac, and Ragmi Mustafa, mayor of Presevo, said that they do not think that Belgrade is investing enough effort to resolve issues in South Serbia, including a strugging economy.

The mayors, who lead two of the main cities in South Serbia, spoke at a BIRN panel discussion entitled Integration – The Way Forward.

The panel is part of BIRN’s second international forum on South Serbia entitled Integration: Combining Ethnic and Democratic Principles, held on Wednesday in Belgrade.

The southern Serbia municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja are home to the country’s largest ethnic Albanian population and are among the least developed in Serbia. High unemployment rates and an average wage lower than the state average of about 350 euros are two of the many challenges facing the area.

In 2000 and 2001, the region was the scene of an armed conflict between state security forces and local ethnic Albanian militants in the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.

Representatives from Serbia’s state government also participated in Wednesday’s forum, along with international organisations and embassies.

Danijela Nenadic from Serbia’s Coordination Body for the municipalities of Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja told conference participants that “we are facing the problem of donor assistance slowly drying up.” She also pointed to the importance of listening to local stakeholders.

Beatrice Meyer, Country Director for the Swiss Cooperation Office, also said that donor aid is decreasing, which is not a positive sign.

“Sometimes we have the feeling that the state is reducing efforts when we are on the ground,” she added.

Graeme Tyndall, Programme Manager for the European Partnership with Municipalities, believes that the Serbian government needs to bring in the private industry to explore ways to improve integration in the region.