The development of local anti-corruption policy in Serbia has in the recent years been pursued primarily through the 2013 National Anti-Corruption Strategy, followed by the June 2016 Action Plan for Chapter 23  of negotiations on Serbia’s accession to the European Union. These two documents provide for local self-government (LSG) units in Serbia to adopt local anti-corruption plans (LACP) and to establish monitoring mechanisms for their implementation.

SCATM has been a partner in this process since the very beginning, starting with support for the development of the model LACP by the Anti-Corruption Agency, which serves as basis for the adoption of these plans, including the above four-year project, which has also awarded support packages to LSGs to adopt and implement the LACPs, as well as to establish local bodies to monitor their implementation, related to the selection and operations of which, several model acts have also been developed.

The aim of the workshop was to present and test the methodology by simulating monitoring and reporting procedures related to the implementation of one of LACP measures, as well as to exchange experiences and share views on this topic between the LSGs that have already established local monitoring bodies, in line with the Anti-Corruption Agency’s model, and the beneficiaries of the above support packages which are as yet to establish and launch the operations of these bodies. The workshop was attended by representatives of Šabac, Plandište, Sombor, Dimitrovgrad, Užice, Medveđa, Boljevac and Subotica LSGs, as well as the Anti-Corruption Agency.

Following the presentation of the draft methodology, the discussion, simulation of monitoring and reporting procedures and sharing past experiences of the established local monitoring bodies the participants had the opportunity to provide meaningful inputs and suggestions that the Anti-Corruption Agency will incorporate in the final version of the methodology, thus making the monitoring process uniform and improving its efficiency and quality.

In the future period, the Anti-Corruption Agency will recommend a monitoring and reporting methodology for LACP implementation to LSGs, which can be used by their local monitoring bodies. This methodology has been developed with support of the USAID Government Accountability Initiative.