The Finance Committee held its eighth sitting on 11, 27 November and 1 December. At the beginning of the sitting, on 11 November, the Committee members discussed in principle the Bill on Public Purchases, the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Deposit Insurance, the Bill amending and modifying the Law on the Deposit Insurance Agency and the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Bankruptcy and Liquidation of Banks and Insurance Companies.

The sitting was chaired by the Committee Deputy Chairman, Branka Ljiljak, and attended by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Slobodan Ilic and associates.

State Secretary Ilic outlined the bills for the Committee on the behalf of the submitters. He stressed that the Bill on Public Purchases enables a more efficient manner of spending public means and realising larger savings, it prevents corruption in the process of public purchases, makes it cheaper and shortens its implementation. The bills amending and modifying the Law on Deposit Insurance and amending and modifying the Law on the Deposit Insurance Agency are the result of the Government’s packet of measures aiming to increase the system’s ability to cope with the impact of the global financial crisis. The bills widen the circle of persons covered by the insurance, in addition to physical persons, it includes businessmen and small and medium enterprises. The amount of insured deposit is raised from 3 000 euros to 50 000 euros, and the date when the Deposit Insurance Agency’s obligation becomes valid in the payment of insured deposits has also been changed. All the bills are harmonised with European Union directives.

Following the discussion according to the agenda, the Committee members accepted in principle the bills on Public Purchases, amending and modifying the Law on Deposit Insurance, amending and modifying the Law on the Deposit Insurance Agency and amending and modifying the Law on Bankruptcy and Liquidation of Banks and Insurance Companies, by a majority of votes.

In the continuation, on 27 November, the Committee members discussed the Bill on Public Purchases in detail. The deputies submitted a total of 67 amendments to the Bill. The Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Finance Committee accepted 21 amendments. The Government cannot accept deputy Zoran Kasalovic’s amendment to article 69 paragraph 2 without a correction, so the Finance Committee will submit a corrected amendment to the same article.

In the continuation of the sitting, 1 December, the Finance Committee decided to submit an amendment to article 7, paragraph 1, item 4 of the Bill on Public Purchases. The Committee members also discussed in detail the bills on Deposit Insurance, amending and modifying the Law on the Deposit Insurance Agency and amending and modifying the Law on Bankruptcy and Liquidation of Banks and Insurance Companies.

Out of the total of 12 amendments submitted by the deputies to the Bill on Deposit Insurance, three amendments were accepted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Finance Committee.

The Finance Committee and the Government of the Republic of Serbia did not accept any of the four amendments submitted by the deputies to the Bill amending and modifying the Law on the Deposit Insurance Agency, but the Finance Committee submitted three amendments of its own to the Bill.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Finance Committee accepted none of the 7 amendments submitted to the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Bankruptcy and Liquidation of Banks and Insurance Companies.