News

29.11.2013 As a UN anti-corruption summit comes to a close today, governments are battling over whether UN anti-corruption meetings should be open to NGO observers. “This was an occasion for all those opposing corruption to come together and consolidate, but a small group of determined countries are still keeping NGO observers out of important discussions. This weakens the international community’s global anti-corruption efforts, because NGO expertise is missing.” said Vincent Lazatin of the UNCAC Coalition.

29.11.2013 The procedures for making monuments in the project “Skopje 2014” that were realized through the “Centar” municipality are conducted with serious violations of the Law on Public Procurement, and eight million euros could have been saved only from monuments, if the most reasonable offers were chosen.

These are some of the conclusions of the second audit report for the project “Skopje 2014” that the municipality has ordered from the anticorruption experts Sladjana Taseva and Dragan Malinovski.

26.11.2013 As 1,500 government delegates from around the world, including 35 ministers, gather in Panama City for the opening of the biennial conference for the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), hundreds of anticorruption NGOs are calling on them to step up their anti-graft efforts and end impunity. The meeting marks the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the UNCAC, which covers all aspects of corruption prevention and criminal enforcement.

25.11.2013 Over 1000 government officials will gather today at a United Nations summit in Panama on the tenth anniversary of adoption of the UN Convention against Corruption. Transparency International is calling on the summit to strengthen the review process that checks country compliance with the convention. The UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is the foremost instrument for overcoming global corruption, ratified by 168 countries to date, an impressive achievement. A new report from Transparency International shows the most effective way to assure continued country commitment and momentum is for action to improve country reviews and their follow-up of the recommendations coming out of it.

06.11.2013  the final report of the audit office about the financial statements, the auditors noted that the Ministry has not been fully implementing the inventory of assets, receivables and payables, and that there is no harmonization of accounting with the actual condition of the assets, and liabilities of the inventory is formally implemented by taking the data from accounts.

“Due to wrongly implemented accounting principles and guidelines regarding the implementation of accounting transactions and inadequate communications and flow of information and documents between departments, the balance sheet items are wrong, and there are unfounded higher amounts that affects the real and fair presentation of financial statements “, says the report by the State Audit Office.

20.08.2013 Fingers are pointed at the municipality Centar and the Ministry of Culture, which, according to Zernovski, worked illegally.

The report on investments of the municipality Centar within the project “Skopje 2014” found that from 2007 to 2013, for the construction of the monuments and accompanying content, even 58 million Euros were transferred from the central budget account of the municipality Centar for which there is no legal justification.

11.07.2013 In Republic of Macedonia there is a weak legal framework and a weaker practice in ensuring the reliability of the financial reports of political parties participating in elections. At the same time there is a very good legal basis but evident weak application of the provisions regarding the transparency and public oversight of the finances of the politics during election.

25.06.2013 Croatia should make political party financing more transparent to strengthen its democracy as it prepares to join the European Union (EU), according to a report released today by Transparency International. The report also called on Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia to make progress in this critical area.

The report ‘Buying Influence: Money and Elections in the Balkans’ warns that a lack of public trust in political parties is threatening the democratic process across the Balkans. Citizens in Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia already view political parties as the most corrupt of twelve public institutions assessed, according to the anti-corruption organisation’s Global Corruption Barometer for 2013, set to be published this summer.

17.06.2013 On June 11, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade signed 30 new contracts for civil society actors in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia.

The awarding ceremony took place on a special day in Norway’s history – on the 11th of June, on the day 100 Years after Norwegian women got the right to vote.

The gathered representatives of the civil society in Serbia were addressed by Ambassador Kamsvåg Speech at, as well as by three prominent women, whose work demonstrates the importance of women’s participation in public life in Serbia: Mrs. Natalija Micunovic Director of Directorate for Gender Equality Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Ivana Cirkovic Director of the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Serbian Government, and Milica Delevic, the outgoing Chairperson of the National Assembly’s European Integration Committee and member of the Advisory Board of the Norwegian Embassy.