The meeting was organised as part of the NATO team’s visit to the Republic of Serbia aimed at finalizing the drafting of the Report on the analysis of the answers to the Questionnaire on integrity building and reduction of corruption risks in the defence system.
Committee Chairman Dusan Bajatovic thanked the NATO experts of the preliminary Report drafted based on the answers Serbia supplied, stressing that their recommendations and advice are of key importance for future cooperation on integrity building. He briefed the representatives of the expert team on the current situation in Serbia, cooperation between the legislative and executive power and authority and scope of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee within the civil control of the defence and security sector, as part of which the Committee will, he stressed, insist on optimal usage of all instruments at the Committee’s disposal in the upcoming period. The Committee members briefed the NATO team on the main problems and challenges of integrity building in the defence sector, stressing the state’s obvious readiness to take on the problem of corruption in society.
The representative of the NATO team, Dr Olivier F. Desarzens from the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, thanked the Committee for the comprehensive review of the situation in the field of security and stressed that the Questionnaire, which is the basis for the Report on integrity, represents a self-assessment of integrity and is the states’ instrument for insight into their own situation. The next step is to implement the existent mechanisms in Serbia which should, according to him, be the main challenge in the upcoming period.
The members of NATO’s expert team expressed readiness to offer necessary assistance and support to the National Assembly so as to ensure an unimpeded process of integrity building and reduce the risk of corruption in the defence system.