Government Accountability Initiative Quarterly Report (November 1, 2020 – February 5, 2021)

The initiative, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has increased the number of local self-governments it supports from 13 to 25. This expansion has enabled the initiative to engage 15,000 youth nationwide in local budgeting and the exercise of democratic principles. GAI has selected a third group of 12 local self-governments to receive technical assistance based on their potential impact, capacity for implementation, and experience in receiving technical assistance. The signing of Memoranda of Understanding between USAID/Serbia and the selected local self-governments was marked by an online event on January 29, 2021. The total population benefiting from GAI technical assistance in 25 counterpart local self-governments is estimated at 1,361,000, or 19.6% of the total population of Serbia. The initiative has also made notable achievements in local budget planning, with 15,000 high school students from 27 high schools in four cities participating in local budget planning. This resulted in local administration approvals of 27 school improvement projects, worth RSD 14.6 million, to be financed and implemented by local governments in 2021. Additionally, four local governments have adopted rulebooks fully compliant with the new Law on Public Procurements, to regulate procurements below the Law's threshold and strengthen the overall procurement procedure. GAI has also provided support to local governments in developing internal procedures for website maintenance and updates, adjusted to the specific internal organization of each local government. The initiative has also delivered training to GAI's 25 counterpart local governments on U.S. best practices in municipal communication strategies, citizen public engagement, budgeting, and corruption prevention. This training has enabled a productive exchange of information and has facilitated the adoption of policies to detect fraud and implementation of bodies to monitor local anti-corruption plans. The State Audit Institution (SAI) has committed to expanding the use of performance auditing throughout the institution, with the Auditor General requesting GAI to train current financial and compliance auditors and all new hires in performance audit methods and procedures consistent with SAI's recently enhanced Performance Audit Policy Manual. GAI has also facilitated SAI's strategic communication of its 2020 performance, financial, and compliance audits to the public, media, GAI partner local governments, and targeted civil society organizations. Furthermore, GAI has provided the Agency for Prevention of Corruption with an analytical decision tree and methodology to improve scrutiny of asset and income representations, and training in use of the methodology. The initiative has also launched a series of workshops to develop guidelines for improved cooperation between the Agency for Prevention of Corruption and the Public Prosecutor's Office. Participants in the workshop identified a need to update the Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties to define a communication and information sharing framework, cooperation modalities for indications of conflict of interest, and asset and income declarations of public officials. The Ministry of Justice has identified new members of the Electronic Register of Corruption Cases (ERCC) Working Group, including new Ministry of Justice, eJustice Division officials to contribute to the ERCC development. The Working Group has approved the GAI-facilitated Project Handbook, developed by S&T Serbia. Serbian counterparts, representatives of the Supreme Court of Cassation, the Republic Public Prosecutor's Office, specialized anti-corruption units of higher courts and public prosecutors' offices, and the Anti-Money Laundering Directorate have adopted a list of recommendations to enhance their engagement in criminal investigations and trials upon consideration of GAI's presentation of a Comparative Analysis of the Status and Role of Financial Intelligence Units in the Region.