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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

RSD 1.2bn for severance payments to local self-government employees

Belgrade, 2 December 2008

Serbian Minister for Public Administration and Local Self-Government Milan Markovic today said that some 2,000 local self-government employees are expected to voluntarily leave their jobs and the government will allocate RSD 1.2 billion from the budget for their severance payments.

Speaking at a session of the parliamentary committee for local self-government he said that municipalities will also set aside sums for this purpose to ensure that every employee gets enough severance pay to set up a private business.

The Minister said that downsizing in local self-governments will be on a voluntary basis, until the law on employment in local self-governments is passed.

He said that more than 22,000 people work in local self-governments and during the next five years this number should be brought down to 12,500, leading to savings of RSD 42 billion.

Speaking about the implementation of new laws on local self-government, according to which local elections were held in May this year, Markovic said that the laws succeeded in resolving the problems of instability and intransigence in the work of municipal bodies.

The Minister said that the situation is once again stable, adding that only five municipal assemblies were dissolved, out of a total of 174.

He said that towns are adjusting to the new regulations and the real test for them will be the formation of community police in 2009.

Community police officers will have some of the powers of normal police officers, as well as uniforms, but will be unarmed. They will deal with civil issues which have so far been neglected, such as parking-related issues, said the Minister.

Markovic announced that the Ministry will send a memo to local self-governments asking them to set up social-economic councils in order to begin a tripartite dialogue at the local level.

He reiterated that, in line with the decentralisation principle, the relevant Ministry will not interfere in decisions and the work of local self-governments, but simply give recommendations regarding the implementation of regulations.