At the invitation of the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro, Maurizio Massari, and the President of Transparency Serbia NGO, Vladimir Goati, the Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Predrag Markovic, today opened a two-day international conference on “Fighting corruption in Serbia: Implementing regulations and challenges”, held at Belgrade’s Sava Centre.

Opening the conference, Mr Markovic said that the day was a good one to start discussing an issue such as corruption, not only because the next day was 9 December, the UN’s International Anti-Corruption Day, and because the conference was attended by people who head institutions the formation of which is a result of the fight against corruption, but also because the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia was voting to approve a National Corruption Suppression Strategy. Mr Markovic said that when one is discussing corruption one is speaking of identifying possible sources of gain, as they represent corruptive sources. The public, the media, and international and specialised organisations all have a great role to play in identifying corruption. ‘The poorer a society is, the more corruption there is. As a society becomes more ordered, corruptive mechanisms become subtler. There is no society free of corruption, but a disordered society is the most corrupt. That is why we, as a society, should show the people how damaging corruption is, and also show all those deriving gain from corruption that corruption does not pay’, Mr Markovic concluded. Speaking of the contribution made by the National Assembly to the fight against corruption, Mr Markovic reiterated that the nation’s highest body had adopted a number of laws providing a framework through which our society can face the problem of corruption. ‘Laws are either implemented or changed. In implementing laws we as a society have mostly faced poverty and inefficiency. But the most dangerous thing is that all levels of government are familiar with the new laws, and most of all the levels to which these laws relate, and which should implement them’, he said. Concluding his address, Mr Markovic said that this conference, and all gatherings like it, should aim at keeping a subject such as corruption constantly in the public’s view. He said that the legislative framework was not enough, and that it was rather only a precondition for solving the problem. Unfortunately, corruption is an issue that does not spare any level of government, Mr Markovic said, adding that the National Assembly, through its Sub-Committee, and with the assistance of OSCE and other organisations, had prepared a law, and compared and inspected it with respect to experiences of other countries, to integrate control of the executive branch – the Supreme Audit Institution Act – adopted by the National Assembly three weeks ago. ‘This Act should be the scissors that cut through corruption’, Mr Markovic underlined, adding that he was worried ‘whether we, as a society, are ready to deal with corruption. The Government said, “Yes, the National Assembly will today adopt the National Corruption Suppression Strategy, and that will be a framework for the fight”, but there are no guarantees. The body that is to adopt the National Strategy has, unfortunately, failed to protect itself from attempts at corruption by adopting the National Assembly Act’, Mr Markovic concluded.

The international conference on “Fighting corruption in Serbia: Implementing regulations and challenges” is being organised on 8 and 9 December 2005 in Belgrade by the OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro, Transparency Serbia, and the British Council.