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2009 Assessment

Serbia: Integrity Indicators Scorecard

Serbia : Integrity Scorecard Report > Sub-Category: Political Financing
Indicators		Score
20	Are there regulations governing the financing of political parties?	100
21	Are there regulations governing the financing of individual political candidates?	100
22	Are the regulations governing the political financing of parties effective?	0
23	Are the regulations governing the political financing of individual candidates effective?	0
24	Can citizens access records related to the financing of political parties?	25
25	Can citizens access records related to the financing of individual candidates' campaigns?	6

Indicator and sub-Indicator Details

Are there regulations governing the financing of political parties?

20a: In law, there are limits on individual donations to political parties.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties (Official Gazette n°os 72/2003, 75/2003 and n°97/2008), Article 5.

20b: In law, there are limits on corporate donations to political parties.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties (Official Gazette n°os 72/2003, 75/2003 and n°97/2008), Article 5.

20c: In law, there are limits on total political party expenditures.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008), Articles 9 to 12. [ LINK ] [ LINK ]

20d: In law, there are requirements for the disclosure of donations to political parties.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there are any requirements mandating the disclosure of financial contributions to political parties. NO: A NO score is earned if there are no requirements mandating the disclosure of contributions to political parties, existing regulations do not require a donor\'s name or amount given, or the regulations allow for anonymous donations.$

Comments:

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties (Official Gazette n°os 72/2003, 75/2003 and n°97/2008), Article 16.

20e: In law, there are requirements for the independent auditing of the finances and expenditures of political parties when financial irregularities are uncovered.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there is a legal or regulatory requirement for the independent auditing of party finances and expenditures when irregularities are uncovered. The auditing is performed by an impartial third-party. NO: A NO score is earned if there are no legal or regulatory requirements for the independent auditing of political parties\' finances and expenditures when financial irregularities are uncovered. A NO score is also earned if such requirements exist but allow for parties to self-audit.$

Comments:

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008), Article 16.

20f: In law, there is an agency or entity that monitors the financing of political parties.

Score:

YES

Comments: Entities monitoring the financing of political parties are the Republic Electoral Commission, which monitors the financing of electoral campaigns, and the Parliamentary Finance Committee, which monitors the regular financing of political parties.

The Law Amending the Law on Financing of Political parties, adopted in October 2008, (in force since Oct. 1, 2009) has transferred the monitoring of the financing of political parties to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA). The law establishing ACA (adopted in October 2008) shall apply as of Jan. 1, 2010.

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008), Articles 14 and 16.

Are there regulations governing the financing of individual political candidates?

21a: In law, there are limits on individual donations to political candidates.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008), Article 11.

21b: In law, there are limits on corporate donations to individual political candidates.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008), Article 11.

21c: In law, there are requirements for the disclosure of donations to individual political candidates.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there are any requirements mandating the disclosure of financial contributions to individual political candidates. NO: A NO score is earned if there are no requirements mandating the disclosure of contributions to individual political candidates, existing regulations do not require a donor\'s name or amount given, or the regulations allow for anonymous donations.$

Comments: The report on the disclosure of donations to individual political candidates should be published in the "Official Gazette," at the cost of the political party, the coalition of political parties or the group of citizens who proposed the candidate.

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008), Article 14.

21d: In law, there are requirements for the independent auditing of the campaign finances of individual political candidates when irregularities are uncovered.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there is a legal or regulatory requirement for the independent auditing of an individual candidate\'s campaign finances and expenditures when financial irregularities are uncovered. The auditing is performed by an impartial third-party. NO: A NO score is earned if there are no legal or regulatory requirements for the independent auditing of an individual candidate\'s campaign finances and expenditures when financial irregularities are uncovered. A NO score is also earned if such requirements exist but allow for candidates to self-audit.$

Comments:

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008), Article 14.

21e: In law, there is an agency or entity that monitors the financing of individual political candidates' campaigns.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there is a domestic agency or set of domestic agencies/entities formally assigned to monitor and enforce laws and regulations around the financing of individual political candidates\' campaigns. A YES score is earned even if the agency/entity is ineffective in practice. NO: A NO score is earned if there is no such agency or entity. A NO score is also earned if this monitoring is solely carried out by the media and civil society organizations.$

Comments: The Republic Electoral Commission (REC) should monitor the financing of individual political candidates' campaigns.

References: Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008) Article 14.

Are the regulations governing the political financing of parties effective?

22a: In practice, the limits on individual donations to political parties are effective in regulating an individual's ability to financially support a political party.

Score:

100

Comments: Entities monitoring the financing of political parties (the Republic Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Finance Committee) are under direct political influence, because they are composed of members of political parties. In practice, this means that the political parties are monitoring themselves.

The Finance Committee working group's report on control of financial reports of political parties for 2007 illustrates the ineffectiveness of the existing monitoring system. According to this report (April 2009), the provisions of the Law on Financing of Political Parties are not precise, and therefore it was not possible to calculate limits on individual and corporate donations.

References: CeSID, "Finansiranje politickih partija: izmedju norme i prakse" [Financing of political parties: between the norm and the practice], CeSID & Fund for an Open Society Serbia, Belgrade, April, 2008. [ LINK ]

National Assembly, Finance Committee, Working group, "Izvestaj o kontroli finansijskih izvestaja politickih stranaka za 2007" [Report on control of financial reports of political parties for 2007], April 29, 2009. [ LINK ]

22b: In practice, the limits on corporate donations to political parties are effective in regulating a company's ability to financially support a political party.

Score:

100

Comments: Entities monitoring the financing of political parties (the Republic Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Finance Committee) are under direct political influence, because they are composed of members of political parties. This means in practice, that the political parties are monitoring themselves.

The Finance Committee working group's report on control of financial reports of political parties for 2007, illustrates the ineffectiveness of the existing monitoring system. According to this report (April 2009), the provisions of the Law on Financing of Political Parties are not precise, and therefore it was not possible to calculate limits on individual and corporate donations.

References: CeSID, "Finansiranje politickih partija: izmedju norme i prakse" [Financing of political parties: between the norm and the practice], CeSID and Fund for an Open Society Serbia, Belgrade, April, 2008. [ LINK ]

22c: In practice, the limits on total party expenditures are effective in regulating a political party's ability to fund campaigns or politically-related activities.

Score:

100

Comments: Entities monitoring the financing of political parties (the Republic Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Finance Committee) are under direct political influence, because they are composed of members of political parties. This means in practice, that the political parties are monitoring themselves. The system is completely ineffective.

References: CeSID, Finansiranje politickih partija: izmedju norme i prakse [Financing of political parties: between the norm and the practice], CeSID and Fund for an Open Society Serbia, Belgrade, April, 2008. [ LINK ]

22d: In practice, when necessary, an agency or entity monitoring the financing of political parties independently initiates investigations.

Score:

100

Comments: Entities monitoring the financing of political parties (the Republic Electoral Commission and Parliamentary Finance Committee) are under direct political influence, because they are composed of members of political parties. In practice this means that the political parties are monitoring themselves. The system is ineffective.

22e: In practice, when necessary, an agency or entity monitoring the financing of political parties imposes penalties on offenders.

Score:

100

Comments: Entities monitoring the financing of political parties (the Republic Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Finance Committee) are under direct political influence, because they are composed of members of political parties. In practice this means, that the political parties are monitoring themselves. The system is ineffective.

22f: In practice, contributions to political parties are audited.

Score:

100

Comments: The Supreme Audit Institution, which is supposed to audit the political parties' reports, is not yet fully operational.

Are the regulations governing the political financing of individual candidates effective?

23a: In practice, the limits on individual donations to political candidates are effective in regulating an individual's ability to financially support a particular candidate.

Score:

100

Comments: The Law Amending the Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n°75/2003), by which an important fraction of monitoring of the financing of political parties was transferred from the Republic Electoral Commission to the Finance committee of the National Assembly, has been strangely adopted only one week after the adoption of the Law on Financing of Political Parties, thus introducing chaos in the system. See Nemanja Nenadic's handbook.

Nemanja Nenadic, Prirucnik: Primena i kontrola postovanja odredaba Zakona o finansiranju politickih stranaka u radu Republicke izborne komisije [Handbook: Implementation and Monitoring of the Implementation of the Law on Financing of Political Parties by the Republic Electoral Commission], Transparency Serbia and OSCE Mission in Serbia and Montenegro, April 2005.

23b: In practice, the limits on corporate donations to individual candidates are effective in regulating a company's ability to financially support a candidate.

Score:

100

Comments:

Vladimir Goati, Nemanja Nenadic, Predrag Jovanovic, "Finansiranje predsednicke izborne kampanje 2004 u Srbiji: Udarac politickoj korupciji ili odrzavanje status-a quo?" [Financing of Presidential Election Campaign 2004 in Serbia: A blow to political corruption or maintaining status quo?], Transparency Serbia, 2004. [ LINK ]

23c: In practice, when necessary, an agency or entity monitoring the financing of individual candidates' campaigns independently initiates investigations.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: The agency or entity aggressively starts investigations into allegations of wrong doing with respect to the financing of individual candidates\' campaigns, or cooperates well with other agencies that do. The agency is fair in its application of this power. 50 Score Criteria: The agency or entity will start investigations, but often relies on external pressure to set priorities, or has limited effectiveness when investigating. The agency, thought limited in effectiveness, is still fair in its application of power. It may be reluctant to cooperate with other investigatory agencies. 0 Score Criteria: The agency or entity rarely investigates on its own, or the agency or entity is partisan in its application of this power. It does not cooperate well with other investigatory agencies.$

Comments:

23d: In practice, when necessary, an agency or entity monitoring the financing of individual candidates' campaigns imposes penalties on offenders.

Score:

100

Comments:

23e: In practice, the finances of individual candidates' campaigns are audited.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: The finances of individual candidates\' campaigns are regularly audited using generally accepted auditing practices. The auditing may be regular and comprehensive or only initiated after an initial review reveals irregularities. 50 Score Criteria: The finances of individual candidates\' campaigns are audited, but audits are limited in some way, such as using inadequate auditing standards, or the presence of exceptions to disclosed contributions. 0 Score Criteria: The finances of individual candidates\' campaigns are not audited, or the audits performed have no value in tracking contributions. Audits may be performed by entities known to be partisan or biased in their practices.$

Comments:

Can citizens access records related to the financing of political parties?

24a: In practice, political parties disclose data relating to financial support and expenditures within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments: "The parliamentary committee for finances has not ensured adequate control of the funding of political parties. Under the current deficient legislation, the committee lacks powers to investigate reports fully and to sanction parties which fail to abide by their obligation to submit reports. " (EC Report, pp.7-8) Although political parties should submit to the parliamentary committee for finances their financial reports, not all of them are respecting that obligation. In practice, most of them have not submitted their financial statements for the years 2007 and 2008 to the Finance Committee, as the reports of the latter are showing. The Law on Financing of Political Parties, Article 16, par. 6, stipulates that political parties have an obligation to publish their financial statements in the "Official Gazette", but it doesn't set any deadline for publishing. Thus, some political parties publish their annual financial records in the "Official Gazette", while others do not. Political parties have also an obligation to submit, every year, their financial statements to the National Bank of Serbia. In general, political parties are respecting this obligation.

References: National Assembly, Finance Committee, Working group, "Izvestaj o kontroli finansijskih izvestaja politickih stranaka za 2007" [Report on control of financial reports of political parties for 2007], April 29, 2009 [ LINK ]

National Assembly, Finance Committee, Working group, "Izvestaj o kontroli finansijskih izvestaja politickih stranaka za 2008" [Report on control of financial reports of political parties for 2008], September 30, 2009 [ LINK ]

Commission of the European Communities, "Serbia 2009 Progress Report", accompanying the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, "Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2008-2009", Brussels, 14.10.2009. [ LINK ]

Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008)

Peer Review Comments: [ LINK ]

The Finance Committee obligates the National Assembly Secretary General to form a commission from the ranks of the members of the working group for the control of the political parties' financial reports and the National Assembly Support Service staff employed at the National Assembly's clerk's office, tasking it to hand over the to the Anti-Corruption Agency (which will start operating on Jan. 1, 2010) the original documents that the Finance Committee had received between 2004 and 2009 in the process of control of the political parties' financial reports by Oct. 30, 2009 (the deadline specified by the law amending and modifying the Law on Financing of Political Parties). Before the original documents are handed over, they should be scanned and along with the records of the proceedings and census lists, be permanently stored at the archives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

24b: In practice, citizens can access the financial records of political parties within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments: Two reports of the Finance Committee, made available to the public during the year 2009 (at the website of the National Assembly), contain in their annexes some financial records related to the political parties, which have submitted their financial statements to this committee. In order to acquire other financial records of political parties, citizens should address themselves to the National Bank of Serbia, and that action wouldn't be relieved of costs in terms of time and money.

Peer Review Comments: [ LINK ]

The Democratic Party has published their latest audited financial report for 2008 on their website.

Other political parties, such as the League of Socialdemocrats of Vojvodina, have only published receipt for submitting their financial report for 2008 to the relevent institution where some financial data are available. ([ LINK ]).

Records for other political parties are not easily available and have to be requested from the National Bank of Serbia.

24c: In practice, citizens can access the financial records of political parties at a reasonable cost.

Score:

100

Comments: Two reports of the Finance Committee, made available to the public during the year 2009 (at the website of the National Assembly), contain in their annexes some financial records related to the political parties, which have submitted their financial statements to this committee. In order to obtain access to other financial records of political parties, citizens should address themselves to the National Bank of Serbia, and that action wouldn't be relieved of costs in terms of time and money.

National Assembly, Finance Committee, Working group, "zvestaj o kontroli finansijskih izvestaja politickih stranaka za 2008" [Report on control of financial reports of political parties for 2008], September 30, 2009. [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: [ LINK ] [ LINK ]

Financial reports are available from the National Bank of Serbia, which is the relevant institution for receiving and authorizing financial reports at the price 6 euros (US$8) to 17 euros (US$24), depending on the level of detail requested.

24d: In practice, the publicly available records of political parties' finances are of high quality.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: Publicly available records of political parties\' finances are complete and detailed, itemizing all significant sources of income and expenditures. 50 Score Criteria: Publicly available records of political parties\' finances are available but are often lacking in important details, are overly general, or are otherwise incomplete. 0 Score Criteria: Publicly available records of political parties\' finances, when available, are so incomplete or overly general as to render them useless in understanding a party's sources of income and its expenditures.$

Comments:

Can citizens access records related to the financing of individual candidates' campaigns?

25a: In practice, individual political candidates disclose data relating to financial support and expenditures within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments:

Peer Review Comments: [ LINK ] Law on Financing of Political Parties ("Official Gazette" n° 72/2003, 75/2003 and 97/2008)

Electoral activities of the political parties are partly funded from the state and province budgets (0.1 percent and 0.05 percent of total budgets are allocated to political parties), and they are under obligation to submit financial annual reports for these amounts. But other, privately donated money is not necessarily transparently portrayed in the financial reports.

25b: In practice, citizens can access the financial records of individual candidates (their campaign revenues and expenditures) within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments:

25c: In practice, citizens can access the financial records of individual candidates (their campaign revenues and expenditures) at a reasonable cost.

Score:

100

Comments:

Peer Review Comments: [ LINK ] [ LINK ]

25d: In practice, the publicly available records of political candidates' campaign finances are of high quality.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: Publicly available records of political candidates\' campaign finances are complete and detailed, itemizing all significant sources of income and expenditures. 50 Score Criteria: Publicly available records of political candidates\' campaign finances are available but are often lacking in important details, are overly general, or are otherwise incomplete. 0 Score Criteria: Publicly available records of political candidates\' campaign finances, when available, are so incomplete or overly general as to render them useless in understanding a candidate's sources of income and expenditures.$

Comments:

References: Vladimir Goati, Nemanja Nenadic, Predrag Jovanovic, "Finansiranje predsednicke izborne kampanje 2004 u Srbiji: Udarac politickoj korupciji ili odrzavanje status-a quo?" [Financing of Presidential Election Campaign 2004 in Serbia: A blow to political corruption or maintaining status quo?], Transparency Serbia, 2004.