Tag: Serbia

Drafting Novi Pazar budget

An initiative aimed at increasing the amount set aside for social welfare and education in next year’s budget was adopted yesterday during a public meeting of the City Council of Novi Pazar. This initiative arises from a project of participatory budgeting, promoted by BIRN Serbia and Pro Concept.

This final element of the Local Budget Forum gave new emphasis to the creation of a budget at a local level. The  programme gives the people of  Novi Pazar the chance to directly participate in the drafting of the city budget.

The results of a survey conducted in Novi Pazar in November, showed the public’s desire that the city invest more in urban development projects, culture, social welfare and education and the budget presented by the delegates and representatives of the City Administration of Novi Pazar in the session of the City Council took into account the citizen’s budget priorities. The City Council adopted the proposed budget for the year 2011.

The report submitted to the City Council underlined the importance of the integration of citizen participation into the establishment of budget priorities for the forthcoming year.

Novi Pazar’s Mayor, Meho Mahmoudi expressed satisfaction that the budget proposal for 2011 were in line with the wishes of the public, as identified by the “Skockajte budžet” campaign.

After the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the City Administration and the organizers of the project, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN Serbia) and Pro-concept.

“Leskovac and Novi Pazar were the first two cities where the project has been implemented. It is all about the willingness of local governments to be open to the ideas and priorities of their voters”, explained Slobodan Gerogijev, from BIRN Serbia, one of the organisations that implemented the project.

He stressed that the results show the willingness of the people and the public administration to work together in order to define budget priorities and to contribute to the transparency of the budgetary process.

“We hope that the local governement will adopt some of the mechanisms we have tried to introduce them to, in order to include the real needs and priorities of the people”, explained Nermin Hasanovic, from the European Partnership with Municipalities, PROGRESS.

At yesterday’s session The Novi Pazar City Council adopted a proposed budget for 2011, in the amount of 1,856,457,000 dinars.

The project of participatory budgeting, carried out by BIRN Serbia and Pro Concept, is funded by the European Union, the Swiss Government and the Serbian Government and is implemented under the European Partnership with Municipalities, Progress.

Documentary about life Sandzak

BIRN Serbia, in cooperation with Radio Television Serbia`s TV magazine programme “Oko”, has produced a thirty minute documentary on life in the south Serbian city of Novi Pazar.

The film, which is a sequel to the first feature on the life of Albanian people in Presevo, was broadcast on December 7 on Radio Television Serbia.

The documentary looks into the daily lives of local Bosniaks and the social problems facing this population, including interethnic tension and years of economic struggles.

Local representatives of the NGO sector, youth, and the economy, as well as the mayor of Novi Pazar, Meho Mahmutovic, were interviewed during the three days of filming in search of stories about everyday life in this part of Serbia, and the cultural and religious heritage of the region.

The third and final part of the series is scheduled to be completed within the next several months.
The three-part documentary is part of BIRN Serbia’s project “Building public awareness and political dialogue in multiethnic areas as a conflict prevention tool”.

BIRN In Southwest Serbia

BIRN Serbia and RTS’s (Serbia’s state broadcasting company) ‘Oko
magazine’ programme have joined forces once again, this time in
pursuit of an answer to questions about why the Sandzak region has
failed to adjust to the changing business environment, and if its
deteriorating economic situation is linked to the rising ethnic
tensions in Serbia’s majority Bosniak southwest.

Local businesspeople, experts and citizens have offered their view on
this issue, revealing how  the “Novi Pazar economic miracle”  has
failed to materialise, and how today’s tough social climate influences
growing nationalistic voices in the region.
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During the1990’s, when Milosevic’s Yugoslavia was under international
sanctions, the Sandzak region flourished thanks to businesspeople who
seized opportunities in the ‘grey market’, importing scarce goods and
avoiding administrative barriers.

Counterfeit international jeans brands made Novi Pazar famous in
Serbia and  all around Europe, where “Pazar jeans” found their way
through to the local market.

But following the overthrow of Milosevic in 2000, and the state’s
shift towards a more  regulated market the clouds gathered in the once
sunny Sandzak sky. Some 300 companies have closed since then and
official statistics record an unemployment rate of 54 per cent.

 ‘Oko magazine’ will be broadcast on Tuesday, December 7th at 18.25 pm.

Second National Budget Forum in Serbia

BIRN Serbia and its partner organisation Pro Concept are organising the second National Budget Forum which takes place in the building of the country’s parliament on November 26 at 11am local time.
The aim of the forum is to gather stakeholders from the field of public finances in Serbia and to create a platform for wider public debate in the field.
The main topics are: tax reform, good governance of public finance and spending priorities for the 2011 budget.
Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, the country’s parliamentary speaker, will open the event after which Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic will have her say. Renowned journalist Dimitrije Boarov will moderate the forum. 
The first National Budget Forum was held in October 2009 in presence of more than fifty governmental, NGO, business sector representatives, experts and journalists.

Most Money from City Budget for Child Protection

The people of Belgrade had the opportunity  today to, for the first time, within the “Make your own city budget“ street event, allocate 58 billion dinars of imaginary money  representing the budget of Belgrade in 24 boxes of city secretariats and agencies within the city government.

Street event “Make your own city budget” was held in celebration of the European Week of Local Democracy in front of Usce Shopping Center, and was organized by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and Pro concept, in cooperation with the city agency for European integration and cooperation with associations.

People who  were involved in action believe that the most money from the city budget should be placed for  the Secretary for Child Protection some 11.91 per cent of the total city budget, followed by the Health Secretary 9.8 per cent, Secretary for Education 9.6 per cent, the Youth Office  7.76 per cent and the Culture Secretary 7.63 per cent.

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At the bottom of their priority list were the Department of Informatics and Statistics, 1.74 per cent,  Government  Secretary 1.34per cent, Commercial Space Agency 0.75per cent, Secretary of Finance 0.75per cent, and the Public Procurement Agency 0.53per cent of the total city budget.

The Director of the Agency for European integration and cooperation with associations Danko Runic pointed that today we have the opportunity to show to the people how they can participate in decision making at the local level.
 
“This is an example of how people should influence the decision makers and how they would allocate the funds from the budgetary resources of the city. The main principle of the European Charter of Local Self-Government is the financial independence of local governments and this action shows that there is a need for financial decentralization and active participation of citizens in it.

The City of Belgrade for the first time this year is participating in celebrations of the European Week of Local Democracy, which is an event that marked the Member States of the Council of Europe in 47 countries “- said Runić.

According to him, the Council of Europe this year awarded Belgrade the “City with 12 stars” title, based on a program that is nominated to mark the European Week of Local Democracy.  

“People  now have the opportunity to send a clear message to the authorities what are their priorities in spending the budget. This action is only part of the project, which includes participatory budgeting of local municipalities and prominence of trasnparentnosti budget process. “- said Danko Cosic, director of Pro Concept.

Cosic said that the results of todays action will be presented to competent institutions dealing with the formation of the budget.

MA in Investigative Reporting

BIRN is in negotiation with the Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade (Serbia) about creating an MA programme in investigative reporting.

There is great interest in a programme of this type in the region, and investigative reporting has an essential role in monitoring the region’s developing democracies. BIRN’s efforts have the support of Sheila S. Coronel, the executive director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University in the USA. We hope to be able to announce a positive outcome by the end of October. We continue to research other opportunities for similar programmes with universities across the Western Balkans.

BIRN Serbia and RTS TV co-production on Presevo

BIRN Serbia and Radio Televesion Serbia`s TV magazine programme “Oko”  started a production of documentary on life Presevo this week, as part of a project supported by British embassy in Belgrade.

This small town in south Serbia with an ethnic Albanian majority, is close to the border with Kosovo and Macedonia. Although the  pan European Corridor 10 passes close by Presevo, the town has remained largely out of the public eye and struggles with tough social and economic problems.

BIRN initiated the production of documentary in order to bring the experiences of local Albanians and Serbs, to a wider Serbian audience.

During three days of filming the team interviewed local political leaders and the  people of Presevo in search of a story about the every-day life in this part of Serbia, burdened as it is with a heritage of war and inter ethnic conflict which it is still coming to terms with.

The feature will be broadcast by the end of September.

Public Vote Health as Top Priority at “Skockajte Budzet” Event

The Serbian Health Ministry was once again allocated the largest share from state coffers – 10.54 per cent – during a street event where citizens voted to show their priorities for public expenditure.

The event, which brough together more than 100 people in front of the building of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce on July 16th, was the fourth street event organised by BIRN Serbia and its partner organisation Pro Concept as part of the “Skockajte Budzet” campaign which is aimed at bringing the general public into the  process of planning the state budget.
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The peope had the chance to allocate the 2010 state budget of 656 billion dinars according to their priorities by placing ‘money’ in ballot boxes representing the 25 government ministries.

Following on from the Health Ministry, were the the Ministry for Science and Technology – om 9.45 per cent – and the Education Ministry – 9.35 per cent. At the oth3er end of the scale were the Minister without Portfolio, the Ministry for the Diaspora and the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government.

A similar street event  on May 15th, held in front of the Terazije fountain in Belgrade also allocated  the largest share of budget funds to the country’s Health Ministry.

At the July 16th event, Milan Jankovic, President of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, pledged support for serious and long-term budget planning. He noted that planning should be transparent and that raising awareness among the public that money in the state budget is ‘common money’ could only help the cause.

The “Skockajte budzet” campaign is part of the larger project “Eye on Public Finances” which was launched in late 2009 by BIRN Serbia and Pro Concept. The aim of the programme is to broaden the understanding of and discussion on budget issues among MPs, National Assembly staff, media representatives and CSO’s, and to increase the public demand for transparency and accountability.

Third Make Your Own Budget Event

Serbian Ministry of Economy and Regional Development has got the largest amount from the state coffer – 9.2 per cent – during a street event aimed to include citizens in the process of planning the Serbian budget by giving them a chance to show which sectors they consider as priorities in planning public expenditures.

The event, which gathered citizens in front of the municipality building in New Belgrade on July 7th, was organised by BIRN Serbia and its partner organisation Pro Concept as part of the “Skockajte Budzet” campaign.

Citizens were constructing the budget of 656 billion dinars, which is the total ammount of the state budget for 2010, by placing money in 25 boxes (symbolizing the number of ministries).
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The Ministry of Economy and Regional Development is followed by Ministry of Health which got 8.7 per cent and Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning – 8.2 per cent whereas the lowest amount from the state coffer has been given to the Minister without Portfolio, Ministry for Diaspora and the country’s Foreign Ministry.

Milos Petrovic, vice president of New Belgrade municipality said that the goal of this action was to see the citizens’ preferences in terms of making the state budget.  

“I am glad that the New Belgrade municipality is the first to join this action as this promotes the active participation of citizens in the process of forming the budget,” Petrovic said.

Such street events will be held in other municipalities in the country in the forthcoming months.

“Skockajte budzet” campaign is part of the larger project “Eye on Public Finances” which was launched in late 2009 by BIRN Serbia and Pro Concept. The aim of the programme is to broaden the understanding and discussion on budget issues among MPs, NA staff, media representatives and CSO’s, as well as to increase the public demand for transparency and accountability.

Make Your Own State Budget

The Skockajte budžet team invite you to join us on Saturday, May 15, on the terrace in front of Terazijska cesma,  beginning at 12 mid day and tell us how you think the Government should spend the national budget.

The organisers are calling you to come and support the event which is aimed at providing citizens with a vote in the process of the budget planning.

 

On the stands at Terazijska cesma, there will be 25 boxes, one for each ministry, and people will be able to have their say about how the budget of 656 billion dinars should be spent by allotting the money according to their own priorities.

 

At the end of the day, the results will be sent to government institutions and published on the site www.skockajtebudzet.rs. We hope that this will allow the government and the wider public to get insight into the opinion of  how Serbia’s people  think the national budget should be allotted.

 

This event is part of the “Eye on Public Finances” project, aimed at improving the process of budget planning and control of the spending.