Vrnjacka Banja

The sitting was attended by the President of the Municipality of Vrnjacka Banja Boban Curkovic and associates, President of the Council of the State Audit Institution (DRI) Dr Dusko Pejovic and associates, as well as representative of Transparency Serbia Milos Djordjevic.

Committee Chairperson Dr Aleksandra Tomic pointed out that holding Committee sittings with an agenda such as this one, fulfils the Committee’s obligations under the Government's Public Financial Management Reform Programme - reviewing the DRI’s audits of individual public finance beneficiaries.

Welcoming those present, the President of the Municipality of Vrnjacka Banja Boban Curkovic highlighted the local self-government’s fruitful cooperation with the DRI in the past period, having in mind that the audits were performed for 2012 and 2019. Curkovic said that, having received recommendations in the audit report, the local self-government initiated a detailed analysis and elimination of deficiencies identified by the DRI, as can be seen in the Response Report submitted by the Municipality of Vrnjacka Banja to the State Audit Institution. He opined that external audit contributes to the quality of work in public finances, because the competencies of all working in the field within the local self-government are strengthened through it.

Presenting the Audit Report on the Consolidated Financial Reports of the Final Account of the Municipality of Vrnjacka Banja 2019 Budget, DRI Council President Dr Dusko Pejovic said that the result of it is an opinion given with reservation. He presented the findings of the audit process and shared the recommendations viz. a total of 28 recommendations: 14 I priorities, nine II priorities and five III priority recommendations. Pejovic added that, as regards the Response Report submitted by Vrnjacka Banja, the DRI expressed the opinion that the measures undertaken to correct the irregularities were satisfactory.

The presentation of the Report was followed by a lengthy discussion between the Committee members, President of the Municipality of Vrnjacka Banja and the President of the DRI Council.

In the continuation, the Committee members were presented the effects of the performance audit on the topic: "Efficiency and cost-effectiveness of negotiated procedure without prior publication of tender" and "Justification of the application of the insurance experience with extended duration for certain jobs” by state auditors Goran Cabarkapa and Natalija Pausic.

DRI Council President Dr Dusko Pejovic also presented recommendations for changes in the regulations concerning public companies.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Dr Aleksandra Tomic and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Veroljub Arsic, Zoran Bojanic, Nikola Jolovic, Dusko Tarbuk, Olivera Pesic, Sonja Vlahovic, Dr Boban Birmancevic, Bratimir Vasiljevic, Ana Carapic, Zoltan Pek, Vojislav Vujic and Dr Milorad Mijatovic.

The Committee sitting outside of the National Assembly seat was held under the auspices of project “Strengthening Parliamentary democracy and Inclusive Political Dialogue”, conducted by UNDP with the support of Switzerland.