The Financing of the Political Parties in Serbia

Belgrade, Feb. 20, 2010 (Serbia Today) – The annual financial reports by the political parties in Serbia revealing all of the sources of the financial support and of the ways funds were spent, will probably never be completed, according to an article published in Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti on Thursday. One of the crucial questions is if all of those who gave donations to the political parties have their incomes from the legit sources and how the parties could protect themselves from being sucked into receiving support from questionable sources often connected to organized crime. That there is a certain amount of the lack of control shows a fact that since 2004 there were 268 cases open before Serbian Courts against parties that didn’t give full documentation about their expenditures and none of them have ever been resolved. Furthermore, until the beginning of last year, all of the financial transactions by the parties were controlled by the Finance Committee of the Parliament, and it was not to expect that MP’s will objects their own parties reports. New Law that is in preparation by the Ministry of Justice will try to solve all of the financing issues with much tougher punishments for those parties and individuals that break the law. It is expected this Law to come before Parliament in June. However, this law will be implemented only on reports starting with the end of 2009 and after. The Government Agency for the Fight against corruption prepares a form of a questioner for the parties that will require parties to declare all expenditures and income. This questioner will be ready by March 7th and it is expected to be used for the local elections in the Municipality of Negotin for the very first time.