At the 76th sitting, held on 30 and 31 May 2019 outside of the National Assembly seat in Krusevac, the members of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending were presented the Report on the financial report and regulatory audit of the City of Krusevac and the effects of the conducted recommendations of the State Audit Institution (DRI).
Day one of the sitting, 30 May, was attended by the Mayor of Krusevac Jasmina Palurovic and the President of the State Audit Institution Dr Dusko Pejovic and associates.
Greeting the Committee members and DRI representatives, the Mayor of Krusevac Jasmina Palurovic said she was very happy that the Committee is holding a sitting in Krusevac. She said that the City of Krusevac initiated programme budgeting in 2015 and began using gender indicators in 2018 in line with its gradual introduction of gender-responsive budgeting.
The Mayor of Krusevac said that last year’s budget was prepared in consultation with the people living in the local communities and the 2019 draft budget was preceded by public debate.
Palurovic said that since 2018 the city councillors can follow the preparation and execution of the local budget, as well as take more active part in its creation, via the public budget portal which, the plan is, will be made available to general public.
DRI President Dr Dusko Pejovic said that Krusevac is a shining example of the progress a city can make after cooperation with DRI which he expects this year’s audit will confirm. He then proceeded to present the Report on the financial report and regulatory audit of the City of Krusevac and the effects of the conducted DRI recommendations.
The Committee went on to review the Report of the Subcommittee for the Consideration of Reports on Audits Conducted by the State Audit Institution on the reviewed State Audit Institution sector reports. The sector reports were presented by DRI auditors and the Subcommittee proposed that the Committee accept them which it proceeded to do.
On day two, 31 May, the Committee reviewed the State Audit Institution 2018 Activity Report, presented by DRI President Dr Dusko Pejovic.
He presented the conducted audits in detail and the Institution’s recommendations and opinions with a special focus on the negative ones. Pejopvic also gave a breakdown of the defects and irregularities noted during the audits and the measures employed by the auditees in 2018 per the DRI recommendations issued in 2017.
Following a discussion, the Committee members formulated a Conclusion Proposal on the reviewed State Audit Institution 2018 Activity Report to be forwarded to the National Assembly for discussion and adoption.
The Committee sitting outside of the National Assembly seat was held under the auspices of project “Strengthening the Oversight Role and Transparency of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Phase Two”, conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, and financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Dr Aleksandra Tomic and was attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Goran Kovacevic, Milan Lapcevic, Zoran Bojanic, Srbislav Filipovic, Sonja Vlahovic, Tanja Tomasevic Damnjanovic, Dusko Tarbuk, Zoran Despotovic and Momo Colakovic.
