This article is an integral part of the Coalition prEUgovor report on progress of Serbia in Chapters 23 and 24 for the period from May 2015 to October 2015.
Poor progress has been made in fight against corruption in police. Transparency of police work has been improved, Integrity Plan and Development Strategy have been adopted. However, the integrity of the police is mostly influenced by inadequate human resources management, poor internal control and politicization. [1] Primarily, there is no obligation to post public notice of police service recruitment. The criteria for advancement in service are secret. Even to police personnel. The list of available job posts at the MUP does not exists. Job descriptions are vague. Next, the Internal Control Sector does not work independently. The Minister of the Interior can prevent the Sector’s investigation, whereat there is no direct obligation to report to the National Assembly or the Committee in charge of Internal Affairs. The Sector has no adequate human, material and financial resources. Finally, police work in Serbia is still much dependent on political parties’ interests, due to which it loses its operative independence and responsibility. In June 2014, five department chiefs were removed from their posts at the Ministry. Reasons for this removal were not clear, or better said, incomplete. For this reason it is impossible to say whether they were justifiable.
Recommendations:
Take systematic measures to remove the following three main issues with the aim of promoting police work efficiency: inadequate human resources management, inefficient internal control and excessive politicization of the police
[1] For further information see publication Procena integriteta u sektoru bezbednosti Srbije, 2014, BCBP, (Assessment of Integrity in Serbian Security Sector, 2014, BCBP) available at: http://bezbednost.org/Sve-publikacije/5596/Procena-integriteta-u-sektoru-bezbednosti-Srbije.shtml
