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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Agreement signed on realisation of the second phase of public administration reforms in Serbia

Belgrade, 6 July 2006

Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Zoran Loncar and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Representative in Serbia Lance Clark signed today an agreement on the beginning of the realisation of the second phase of the project “Support to public administration reform strategy in Serbia”.

Speaking at a press conference held following the signing of the agreement, Loncar said that the second phase of reforms will begin with the implementation of several regulations that were established in the past two years, with the aim that Serbia gets its first depoliticized functionaries in the organs of public administration.

He said that all functionaries in public administration will be selected exclusively on the basis of knowledge and expert qualifications, through competition, and not like before on the basis of party membership and loyalty to ministers and other political functionaries.

According to Loncar, this is the first step towards procuring a highly professional and depoliticized public administration for Serbia, with which the basic aim of an efficient and economical public administration which will carry out integral social and economic reforms in Serbia, can begin to be realised. At the same time it will be a public administration formed to serve the citizens of Serbia.

Loncar recalled that in November 2004 the Serbian government adopted the public administration reform strategy, which will last until 2008. He added that from the time of the adoption of this document until now administrative changes within the framework of nine new adopted laws in the area of public administration have been completed, as well as 24 decrees and several other sub-laws.

Clark explained that this is an important step in giving support to the Serbian government so that it can provide an efficient, effective administration and quality public services to all Serbian citizens.

He explained that the programme of support to the public administration reform strategy in Serbia connects activities of the Serbian government regarding public administration reform with the mandate of the UNDP, which is defined in the “multiyear framework for financing”, and with which the UNDP is trying to contribute to the establishment of democratic rule through public administration reforms and the fight against corruption.

The programme “Support to public administration reform strategy in Serbia” is also completely in accordance with the government’s priorities, which are included in the national strategy for the accession of Serbia to the EU and the poverty reduction strategy. The project “Support to public administration reform strategy in Serbia” is worth some €2 million, and donors are the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the UK government’s Department for International Development.