STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

Executive Summary

Transparency International has been fighting against corruption at a global level for ten years now. However, corruption keeps eating into political, economic and social life, and assumes new shapes and forms, parallel to development of anticorruption instruments.

Transparency Serbia is a part of the network of Transparency International organization branches and, at the same time, a local non-government agency, registered in accordance with regulations of Republic Serbia and state union of Serbia and Montenegro. Transparency Serbia had been formed and commenced its work in the period following the regime change in Serbia, when the prerequisites were met for an all encompassing struggle against corruption to begin through institutional and system reforms.

Even though it started its work relatively recently, Transparency Serbia has also been recognized in domestic and international public, by state organs, economy, media, experts, professional associations and citizens, as one of the most competent organizations in the country as far as anticorruption policies are concerned.

Corruption in Serbia represents a serious social problem. Citizens' opinions, declared program priorities of political parties and analyses of international organizations all point to that. The scope of corruption is impossible to asses, because statistical data do not provide any reliable basis for making conclusions. Thence the assessments of the scale of corruption use analyses of public opinion and analyses of public perception of corruption performed on a qualified sample.

Struggle against corruption in the period of 2001-2004 has mostly been treated as a matter of furthering legal and institutional framework. The adopted regulations are mostly not being carried out, and the institutions encounter significant hindrances in their work. The citizens' discontent caused by the pace of the changes and instability of the political situation represent factors that hamper successful creation and long term implementation of anticorruption programs. One of the main problems is the fact that some of the anticorruption measures were passed prior to adopting a strategic framework of a long term and sustainable concept of struggle against corruption, so they're not sufficiently compatible.

In the past couple of years, citizens have rated corruption as fourth on the list of problems in society (right after poverty, unemployment and general crime). Public opinion researches indicate that citizens believe it to be very widespread in Serbia, but also that such an opinion is less founded in personal experience, and more on the bases of preconceptions and stories of others'. These researches indicate that a large number of citizens won't even report cases of ‘petty' corruption, of which they have immediate knowledge.

It is even more difficult to asses reliable data about the scope of corruption ‘on a grand scale'. The data obtained on the bases of research of corruption perception of international business persons and risks analysts do speak of this in an indirect way. According to one of these analyses, (Corruption Perception Index – CPI, Transparency International), Serbia and Montenegro find themselves in the group of highly corrupt countries (97 th of 145 countries rated in 2004, with an index of 2,7 on a scale of 10, where those with index of less than four are considered highly corrupt). During the previous four years, a certain progress has been made compared to the index of 1,3 of the year 2000.

Since the process of economic and social transition in many areas is either on the very beginning or had taken a completely wrong turn, it is realistic that we as a society are only yet to encounter the massive work in the struggle against corruption. Also, it could not be expected that by enacting the National Anticorruption Strategy, in the creation of which Transparency Serbia played a significant part, the mechanisms of struggle against corruption will ultimately be defined and widely accepted during the forthcoming years.

In view of the old existing problems and new opportunities for the struggle against corruption in Serbia to begin in a way that would yield more results, Transparency Serbia opted to carry out the process of strategic planning and to pass this Strategic Framework through which it defines goals and directions of its activities in the period of 2005 – 2010, bearing in mind the general guidelines established by strategic framework of Transparency International global network.

In that respect, the organization's mission and vision are the following:

Vision

Serbia, as a country in which corruption is reduced to a level that does not significantly jeopardize realization of public interests, business relations, political life of the country, rule of law, developing healthy ethical and cultural values of society, health, security and welfare of citizens and assuming a desired position in European and global community of peoples – transformation of corruption infested society into society in which corruption does not exist.

Mission

An effort towards creating an environment for changing social climate, as well as creating necessary prerequisites to make the struggle against corruption in Serbia be lead in a best possible way and for the outcome of this struggle to be successful – for the society infested by corruption to be transformed into one in which corruption does not exist.

Successful struggle against corruption also helps to:

•  Reduce poverty and realize social justice

•  Build a democratic society and open government

•  Develop business relations on more honest and visible bases

•  Further people's safety and protection of assets

•  Create sustainable development and environment protection.

Challenges that Transparency Serbia will encounter on the road of the realization of its mission:

•  Work on overcoming constant threat of political instability and difficult position of the state will jeopardize attributing adequate significance to solving the problems of corruption and struggling against corruption in an adequate fashion.

•  Work on increasing understanding of the problems of corruption and anticorruption policy in society, building realistic expectation in terms of the outcome of this policy, building credible institutions of democratic society and citizens' readiness to assure that these institutions' work be one in the interest of the public.

•  Furthering vision, means and will for the struggle against corruption and spreading the anticorruption front to all pillars of society's integrity.

•  Providing necessary funds for adequate activities and realization of the organization's goals

•  Providing necessary degree of visibility of the work of the organization in the public and among those with whom the organization needs to work together on achieving its goals.

•  Maintaining and constantly furthering the reputation the organization's attained through its activities in the public.

In order to realize its vision and mission, Transparency Serbia will focus on further development:

•  Of expert bases in the field of struggle against corruption;

•  Adequate programs for the struggle against corruption in Serbia;

•  Own capacities and organization structure;

•  Regional cooperation with the goal of exchanging experiences and joint effort in the field of struggle against corruption in South East Europe and beyond;

•  Network of organizations and individuals with whom the organization cooperates.

Transparency Serbia intends to remain a leading organization in Serbia in terms of anticorruption policies, with a clearly defined approach, high level of expertise and capacities required for efficient implementation of anticorruption programs.

Key items of a successful development and application of the strategic framework are:

•  Development of quality programs.

•  Multiplication of financing levels and

•  Development of an adequate organization structure that will be able to deal with challenges.

Programs

In the forthcoming period, the following program priorities have been set:

•  Creating conditions for minimizing corruption in the political system;

•  Eradicating corruption at the points in which public and private sectors meet (public procurements, privatization and other);

•  Creating mechanisms for removing and efficient solution of the conflict of public and private interest, in favor of the public one;

•  Introducing ethical principles in business relations and anticorruption standards in private sector;

•  Encouraging the use of mechanisms of eradicating money laundering and organized crime, reclaiming illegally acquired assets and refunding the damage to the victims of corruption;

•  Development and carrying out of anticorruption education programs and work with education institutions on creating anticorruption ethical codes;

•  Increasing responsibility of civil society organizations;

•  Furthering efficiency and honesty of institutions and mechanisms that protect society from corruption (the police, judiciary, specialized bodies etc) in order to unveil, expose and penalize corruption.

•  Expanding the front for struggle against corruption through treating this problem along with other issues of vital importance (such as environment protection, protection of customers' rights);

•  Building mechanisms for measuring the presence of corruption in certain spheres of society and perception of corruption among certain categories of people in order to examine the success of anticorruption measures and conceive further actions.

In terms of program development, Transparency Serbia will rely on its own experts, people who are well acquainted with certain domestic and international issues, but also on the experiences of other branches of Transparency International and capacities of the secretariat of Transparency International. In this way, Transparency Serbia will be in the position to conceive and carry out quality anticorruption programs, but also to operate more successfully at a regional level. In view of this, Transparency Serbia plans to, parallel to integration processes at regional level, expand the range of programs on the development of which it works, including creating a regional network for struggle against corruption. In this respect, Transparency Serbia projects the necessity of cooperation with expert organizations, specialized in the fields that have mutual meeting points with struggle against corruption (preventing organized crime, protection of human rights, transparency of public finance, education of citizens', media and public officials and other).

Transparency Serbia will also pay particular attention to increasing its own visibility and being recognizable in public through building an image of a politically un-biased, expert and active organization, that is capable of recognizing the very essence of a problem, able to conceive, on its own or in cooperation with others, a solution for overcoming it and prepared to provide help and support for everyone who wishes to struggle against corruption within their power and through actions performed as defined in the statute.

Financial bases development

Bearing in mind the economic situation in which Serbia finds itself, it is not probable that in the period covered by this Strategic framework the state and private sector will be able to financially support programs and development of the organization to a major extent. With that in mind, Transparency Serbia is aware that its funding will mostly rely on support of international donors' institutions.

•  In searching the necessary funds, Transparency Serbia will try to attain financial independence as much as possible, striving towards obtaining funds for carrying out projects and work of the organization from various sources.

•  Transparency Serbia will engage in obtaining less common forms of financial support for carrying out its programs and for the work of the organization – by applying for grants from the state budget, local self-governments and the like, developing cooperation with private sector and carrying out programs that are partly self-financed;

•  Transparency Serbia will make sure that information on its funding and audit reports regarding financial activity are accessible to donors and other subjects (publishing the final account and audit results on the internet presentation), as well as for the results achieved through these funds to be visible and subject to examination.

Development of the organization

Organization development includes:

•  Strengthening capacities of the organization (acquiring particular material resources, furthering the existing organization structure and involving new individuals in the work of the association) and

•  Increased cooperation with other organizations and branches of Transparency International in the field of struggle against corruption, in order to improve expertise, exchange of experiences and realization of goals of the organization.

While building its own organizational infrastructure, Transparency Serbia will pay particular attention to furthering the measures relating to responsibility of officials and engaged persons and their tasks, providing due monitoring and reacting to the development of the situation in view of realization of program goals, maintaining politically unbiased position, involvement of representatives of different social groups, prevention and solving conflict of interests, development of healthy interpersonal relations, preserving and furthering the organization's reputation, promoting openness in the work of the organization management and its members as well of accessibility of information regarding funding of the organization.