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RESEARCH ON TRANSPARENCY OF THE OPERATION OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTS

28. October 2016.

Vranje, Bujanovac, Presevo – The city of Vranje hosted the event at which the results of the project "Increasing Transparency of the Authorities’ Operation in Six Cities and Municipalities of Raska and Pcinj Districts" were presented.

According to the research results, Vranje is in the sixth place out of 145 municipalities and cities in Serbia, while Bujanovac is in the 41st, and Presevo in the 142nd. 

Zlatko Minic, from the organization “Transparency Serbia”, which, thanks to the financial support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, did the research, believes that transparency is one of the most powerful anti-corruption mechanisms. He provided to representatives of the local self-governments the guidelines and recommendations for improving the operation of their local self-governments. The meeting was attended by representatives of the city of Vranje, the municipalities of Bujanovac and Presevo and by a representative of the OSCE Mission to Serbia.

“We have compiled a list of 87 indicators of transparency that show whether some things are posted on the websites, whether they exist in practice or at the service centers, whether specific documents are available, whether specific procedures are compiled with and the like, "Mr. Minic said.

Ismail Pajaziti, the Head of the Bujanovac Municipal Administration, said that the meeting held with representatives of "Transparency Serbia" was very useful.

"We had an important meeting, which will be very useful to us, since we got from “Transparency Serbia” the guidelines and recommendations on how to improve the transparency of operation of our local self-government. Our goal is to improve not only our position on the ranking-list, but also the services, which will make the operation of our all local self-governmental bodies, as well as of the public enterprises and institutions in Bujanovac, transparent, "Mr. Pajaziti said.

“The ranking of Presevo at the bottom of the transparency list is a clear indication of why this municipality has a new local self-government," Sciprim Arifi, the Mayor of Presevo, said.  

"Being in the 142nd. place on the list isn’t something negative for us, but it motivates us to work more. I promised that we would be among the top twenty municipalities at the next meeting. We still have a great deal to do and great efforts to make. We have already started doing so. Thanks to the suggestions received from "Transparency Serbia", it will be easier for us to continue going along the path that we have taken, "Mayor Arifi said.

Source: OK Radio and Coordination Body