05.10.2016.

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Stricter financial control and improved public procurement performance are the key to police reform

Expedient financing of civil protection was the topic of a discussion held on Tuesday, October 4, in Nis. The discussion was organized by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), with the support of Society Innovation Center – NIIT and organization PROTECTA, one of the partners of the PRO-CURE Group. ...

Expedient financing of civil protection was the topic of a discussion held on Tuesday, October 4, in Nis. The discussion was organized by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), with the support of Society Innovation Center – NIIT and organization PROTECTA, one of the partners of the PRO-CURE Group.

Case studies “The Ministry of Interior funds The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, but does not employ its graduates” by Darko Stojkovic and “Police spends all its money on printing” by Milan Stefanovic were also presented during the discussion.

“During 2015, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) tried several times to carry out the procurement of toner cartridges, but the procurement process was annulled each time due to major oversights. Consequently, the MoI lost its time and money and put its ongoing operations at risk because it could not give out documents”, PROTECTA Executive Director Milan Stefanovic pointed out.

Stricter financial control and improving public procurement performance are an important part of the final step in police reform, it was noted during the discussion.

“Strengthening internal controls and internal audits are key to improving financial accountability in the Ministry of Interior. The reform should focus on human resource management as well. In that light, the MoI should get to decide what it wants from The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies (ACP)”, BCSP researcher Sasa Djordjevic warned.

Last  year, the Ministry of Interior spent EUR 3.4 million on the education of students at The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, who were later not employed by the MoI, the study showed.

“This poses the question of expedient funding of  The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies. There are two possible solutions – either to eliminate public funding if the ACP graduates are not needed and thus save money or to find a way for the ACP graduates to be employed by the MoI”, Darko Stojkovic from Society Innovation Center – NIIT concluded.

Representatives of municipal administrations and Nis police station, as well as media and civil society organizations representatives participated in the discussion.

The event was part of the project PRO-CURE: Strengthening Civil Scrutiny of Public Procurement in the Security Sector organized by BCSP and Society Against Corruption with the financial support of the EU Delegation to Serbia and the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Republic of Serbia.

Report was translated by BCSP Intern Aleksandra Lazic.

 

Tags: ..., &ldquo, academy, civil, control, criminalistic, discussion, financial, improved, ministry, performance, police, procurement, public, reform, society, stricter, studies

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