Legislation: Serbia ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2005. Combined, the Serbian Penal Code 2005, Criminal Code, Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering (updated in 2009) and the Law on Conflict of Interests 2004 criminalise public and private sector corruption, attempted corruption, extortion, abuse of office, bribing a foreign public official, money laundering and both active and passive bribery. The Law on Conflict of Interests restricts public officials from having positions or other interests that may be incompatible with the public interest they are charged with representing. It also provides for a declaration of assets, and for rules on gifts received in the performance of official duties. In October 2008, an Anti-Corruption Agency Act was passed and was fully exercised by 1 January 2010. The aim of the law is to secure the implementation of the National Strategy for Combating Corruption and independent control of the financial assets of political parties and checking the accuracy of data stated in officials' property reports. Also, in October 2008, a Law Amending the Law on the Financing of the Political Parties was passed together with Law on the Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and a Law on the Liability of the Legal Entities for Criminal Offences. Access the Lexadin World Law Guide for a collection of legislation in Serbia.

Government Strategies: A National Strategy for Combating Corruption was adopted in late 2005 and translated into an Action Plan in late 2006. According to CMI Corruption in Serbia 2007, the implementation of the Action Plan is characterised by unrealistic timelines. Moreover, despite the strategy obliging all government authorities to directly cooperate in the implementation of the Action Plan, as well as sector specific action plans for combating corruption, implementation has been left largely to the responsibility of an independent anti-corruption agency - the need to develop this agency was reemphasised by the Law on the Anti-Corruption Agency 2008. The agency was founded in January 2010. Serbia has participated in the Stability Pact Anti-Corruption Initiative (SPAI) under the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. This initiative has helped put the issue of corruption on the political agenda. So far, assistance for the Judges Association of Serbia and the judicial training centre on developing a curriculum to train judges on new codes of ethics has been provided. Assistance for the Association of Public Prosecutors and Deputy Public Prosecutors of Serbia in developing a code of ethics has also been provided.

Anti-Corruption Agencies: In December 2005, the government adopted a National Anti-Corruption Strategy. In this strategy the foundation for an anti-corruption agency was made. There are concerns of whether the agency could actually perform all the tasks that it would be assigned. Another major concern is the question of political will, which has been lacking in other anti-corruption initiatives. According to Global Integrity 2008, there were many criticisms of the work of the agency, from both the government and the public. Government officials were angry that they had to disclose all of the requested data, while the public was concerned because only employees of the agency had access to that data. The Anti-Corruption Agency has itself complained that the government do not grant it enough money to effectively combat corruption, as it will receive only RSD 9 million in 2010, while its planned budget was estimated to RSD 160 million. Serbia also has an Anti-Corruption Council, established in 2001, which should function as a government advisory body. Conceived as an expert advisory body without further reaching competencies, its effectiveness, according to several observers, has been minimal. The council has publicly criticised government policies and brought specific corruption cases into the public eye, but a lack of access to confidential documentation and a lack of methodological rigour to produce convincing analyses has damaged the reputation of the council.

Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering (APML): The APML serves as Serbia's Financial Intelligence Unit. The APML is an administrative body under the Ministry of Finance and responsible of the implementation of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering. According to the UNICRI and OSCE 2007 Serbia, the establishment of APML is an important step towards combating money laundering even though there are concerns whether dependency on the Ministry of Finance might be misused for achieving political aims. Moreover, the Anti-Corruption Council has warned that the high number of transactions that in accordance with the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering should be reported to the APML could lead to an overburden of useless information draining APML resources.

Auditor-General: Efforts to create a supreme audit institution began in 2001, supported by a number of donors and international organisations. A State Audit Institution Law was passed in 2005, but it took several years before the institution was established. In November 2009 the State Audit Institution published it's first report on the financial audit of the 2008 State Budget, which pointed to a lack of documentation of how money were spend within some ministries. The latest reports can be found here (in Serbian).

Inspector General: In 2003, the Ministry of Interior General Inspectorate was established and charged with controlling compliance with legal standards of police work and with powers to carry out investigations into alleged corruption. On 30 June 2006, after three years of existence, the Inspector General presented results stating that only 14% of the cases/complaints received had sufficient basis for further investigation. The final result was that 111 criminal charges were brought against 157 people for reasonable suspicion of having committed 207 criminal acts. According to the GRECO Compliance Report on the Republic of Serbia 2008, special units under the Public Prosecutor's Office have been created in order to fight corruption. This is to ensure a better cooperation between the police and the public prosecutor, in house training, witness protection and confiscation of property.

E-Governance: The government committed EUR 34 million to be invested in the development of electronic governance by the end of 2007. The key project relates to the domain of efficient local self-government with the introduction of information systems that provide for issuance of documentation, electronic public procurements and a unified computer network for all state institutions. A project of fiscal decentralisation was also included, which is intended to provide for a more efficient functioning of local self-government, especially in tax collection. The projects in the area of e-governance will be implemented by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government. The e-Serbia project was supposed to have been made public in 2008, but has not been published so far. Individuals and companies can access information on Serbian customs and Serbian tax regulations, online procedures and forms, although the English versions of these pages are still in development

Public Procurement: A new Public Procurement Law (PPL) was adopted by Parliament at the end of 2008. However, it does not fully meet EU requirements. The new PPL attempts to increase transparency and professionalism and reduce some bureaucratic burdens that characterised the previous PPL. According to an EU Sigma 2009 report, public procurement practitioners have warmly received the new PPL. It should be noted that domestic companies enjoy a 20% price preference compared to foreign companies. All national procurement regulations and the national procurement law are accessible from the Public Procurement Office (PPO). All tenders above a certain threshold are published online, at the PPO 's procurement portal. The PPO mandate includes participating in drafting the implementation regulations guidelines, manuals pertaining to the public procurement sector, providing consulting services to contracting authorities and bidders, training of public officials and capacity building, and organising workshops, seminars and conferences with discussions on public procurement matters. Regulations specific to particular procurement are less available; local-level procurement regulations are also difficult to access. The Privatisation Agency of Serbia administers a database where companies can search for auctions and tenders. Even though opportunities for corruption remain, the work of the PPO has succeeded in reducing the number of non-competitive tenders to levels comparable with international good practice procedures as well as improving the later stages of the process, such as contracting and the execution of the agreements.

Whistle-Blowing: According to Global Integrity 2008, there is no practical or legal basis for the protection of civil servants or private sector employees who report cases of corruption, graft, abuse of power, or abuse of resources from recrimination or other negative consequences. There is no internal reporting mechanism for public sector corruption.

General Comments on the Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives: An anti-corruption strategy has been enacted and several corruption-related laws and institutions have been established, but these regulatory bodies are accused of being largely superficial. The government has proved itself unwilling to subject itself to independent domestic oversight, which is an essential step in fighting corruption. An important example involves the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance 2004. An independent trustee appointed to implement the law has asked the government almost once a month for the last year to allow access to information of public significance and the government has not yet responded to these requests.