{"id":20771,"date":"2013-02-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/procurements-present-greatest-risk-of-corruption-in-the-defense-system-of-serbia\/"},"modified":"2020-07-21T20:07:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T18:07:28","slug":"procurements-present-greatest-risk-of-corruption-in-the-defense-system-of-serbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/procurements-present-greatest-risk-of-corruption-in-the-defense-system-of-serbia\/","title":{"rendered":"Procurements present greatest risk of corruption in the defense system of Serbia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tAccording to Index\u2019s results, recently presented by the Transparency International UK (TI UK), Serbia\u2019s performance was given a grade \u201eD+\u201c, depicting how a \u201ehigh corruption risk\u201c is threatening its defence system.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tBCSP\u2019s researchers, who have provided input on Serbia for the TI UK Index, stressed how, despite their best efforts, they haven\u2019t been successful in identifying whether there is a system for managing Serbia\u2019s defence industry; what is the exact character of confidential costs spent by Serbia\u2019s security services or whether individuals who are making decisions on procurement are being regularly rotated (in light of a common anti-corruption measure).<\/p>\n

\tWhat are the principal findings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\u201eWe have found several instances of organized criminal activities, last one dating from 2009; however, this is hardly enough to establish a positive relation between corruption in defence and organised crime\u201c, said BCSP researcher Marko Savkovic.<\/div>\n

\tBCSP\u2019s Executive Director Predrag Petrovic warned how in the Security-Information Agency as much as 95% of procurement is exercised through confidential procedure, excluding the public, which does not necessarily lead to corruption, but does represent a risk. MoD\u2019s record in this regard is more favorable, with 15% of procurement handled through such procedures in 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tPetrovic however stated that a grave risk of corruption is still contained in the unlawful \u201etrade (exchange) of information\u201c.<\/p>\n

\t\u201eWe do not know in whose interest security agencies collect information, whom do they forward these information, and are they misused. Politicians have gained wide access to information, but do not have the culture for using them appropriately\u201c, stated Petrovic.<\/div>\n

\tWhat faults lie in the new Law?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tThe new Public Procurement Law (PPL), to be in effect from April 1, 2013, brings more detailed regulation of procurement in defence. Some of its provisions, however, are deemed problematic \u201esince their interpretation was left too broad\u201c.<\/p>\n

\tAs Transparency Serbia\u2019s Program Director Nemanja Nenadi\u0107 explained, there are several universal exceptions to the upcoming PPL\u2019s application. For instance, its provisions will not be applied to procurement agreed or based upon international agreements, which is, in his words, a \u201elegally too broad\u201c provision. While it seems common sensical to exclude provision of goods and labour in international (peacekeeping) operations from the scope of the law, there is no real justification for the authority mandated to the Government of Serbia, to exclude from public all procedures it sees as \u201evital for national security\u201c.<\/p>\n

\tWhat are the key MoD objections?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tIn words of Milan S. Milutinovic, Adviser in the Serbian MoD, through recent Self-assessment which was implemented in partnership with NATO \u201eBuilding Integrity\u201c initiative, several specific areas of risk have been identified: procurement, (military system, provision of) healthcare, and selection and admission of new cadre. In the second tier of risks are housing issues; rehabilitation after suffering combat related injuries; travel costs and management of resources (especially immobilities).<\/p>\n

\tPrincipal objection of the MoD is that, in the course of research, data coming from only one organisation, media reports and different secondary sources of information were used, which \u201equestions the validity of grade being given\u201c.<\/p>\n

\t\u201eNATO Self-assessment methodology should be taken into consideration in future TI UK dealings with Serbia\u2019s defence integrity issues. Serbian MoD will remain open for cooperation with all interested sides, civil society included\u201c, Milutinovic said.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speakers at the round table held in the BCSP\u2019s library noted that the global \u201eGovernment Defence Anti-Corruption Index” stressed numerous risks from corruption were identified in Serbia\u2019s defence system, with procurement being one of the principal problem areas, but Defence Ministry representative stated objections to TI UK\u2019s methodology, and offered some advice for further research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8604,8591,8603],"tags":[264,10341,7446,7476,5829,8111,10340,8556,7581,10342,8355,10339,1080,7651,9250,7661,7475,7810,7838,7529],"vest_saopstenje":[9454],"coauthors":[164,8671],"class_list":["post-20771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","category-serbian-security-policy","category-transparency","tag-264","tag-advice","tag-areas","tag-corruption","tag-defence","tag-further","tag-identified","tag-methodology","tag-ministry","tag-objections","tag-offered","tag-principal","tag-problem","tag-procurement","tag-representative","tag-research","tag-risks","tag-serbia-s","tag-stated","tag-system","vest_saopstenje-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20771"},{"taxonomy":"vest_saopstenje","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vest_saopstenje?post=20771"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=20771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}