Serbia's anti-corruption council finds no visible progress, cites government obstruction

Despite establishing new institutions and adopting multiple anti-corruption strategies since 2005, Serbia has made no visible progress in curbing corruption. A report by the Council for Combating Corruption highlights insufficient law enforcement, political interference in regulatory bodies, and a general lack of transparency as primary reasons for this stagnation. These factors create fertile ground for systemic corruption.

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We are facing the fact that the Government of Serbia has been ignoring our reports and recommendations for more than two decades, and that we have difficult access to documentation necessary for the investigation of systemic corruption.

The Council has faced consistent disregard from the Serbian government for over twenty years, with its reports and recommendations frequently ignored. Access to necessary documentation for investigating systemic corruption is also severely hampered. State bodies often fail to provide requested information, even when legally obligated under the Law on Free Access to Public Information. This obstruction prevents the Council from establishing key facts in various cases.

As an example, the Council could not determine the true investor, ownership structure, or financial implications of the "Belgrade Waterfront" project. Despite European Commission recommendations for the government to review the Council's reports in its sessions, this has never been implemented. This governmental inaction has emboldened other state institutions to disregard the Council's requests for documentation.

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We were unable to determine who the actual investor is, how the ownership structure is determined, what the investor's obligations are to the City of Belgrade and the Republic of Serbia, nor what the financial effects of that project are on the state.

Similar opacity surrounds other major state projects, such as the Belgrade-Subotica high-speed railway. While authorities claim data is public, the Council reports a lack of access to financial flow information, prompting an inquiry to the Republic's Public Prosecutor's Office. The Council also noted that over 800 state institutions fail to comply with decisions from the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, undermining the rule of law and institutional integrity.

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More than 800 state institutions do not act on the decisions of the Commissioner, which undermines the rule of law and the integrity of institutions.