2009 Assessment

This peer-reviewed country report includes:

Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.

Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.

Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.

Ineffective anti-corruption safeguards and mechanisms stubbornly persist in Serbia. The most noticeable decline in the country since Global Integrity's last assessment of Serbia has been in the area of rule of law, where there have been significant delays in the enforcement of court decisions brought about by a bloated court management system and uneven workloads of courts and judges. Appointments to law enforcement agencies continue to be highly politicized, although there are some nascent regulatory reform efforts underway. Citizen access to public information, including access to asset disclosure records of government officials and records of contributions to political parties, is generally poor. As we report, "The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance is not supported by the government […] the number of cases of [non-responsiveness to] the Law on Freedom of Information of Public Importance is measured in the thousands." Despite these challenges, there are some areas of strength the country can build upon. The voting system is relatively robust, while media and civil society organizations remain vibrant, with new legislation now in place to strengthen citizens' rights in forming CSOs.