By CEV magazine team

Serbia is the only European country without the State Audit Institution (SAI), which practically means that there is no institutional body that controls expenditure of taxpayers` money. State Audit Institution law came into the force in 2005 and members of the SAI Council were appointed several months ago. Auditors, however, were not elected and their offices do not exist. On the contrary, their colleagues in EU countries are influential officials, whose task is to discover irregular spending of taxpayer`s money, and whose involvement can easily endanger politicians` careers.

Radoslav Sretenovic, the President of the SAI Council, explains that the SAI is placed in a small cabin in Parliament building, without the basic working conditions.

"What we expect are suitable offices and required working conditions for 89 auditors, as it was previously planned", he says.

Corruption potential is auditors` principal interest and main "target". They should exercise supervision not only over republic and local budgets, but over national pension, health and development funds, as well as state companies` financial reports.

"The last audit report was put before Parliament in 2003, when Serbian prime minister was Zoran Zivkovic, and that information is scandalous. Unfortunately, people in Serbia are not aware of the fact that they have right to know how much money the goverment spends, as well as the purposes it is used for. Everyday, national press reports on scandals which involve well known state officials, and yet there is no institution that can prove, prevent, or at least reduce it", claims Predrag Jovanovic, director of the Public Procurement Office.

In the past five years, Serbian governments adopted audit reports that where not externally checked by independent authorities. It means that ministers are answerable to themselves only. That is why Serbia deals with scandals such as the controversial reconstruction of VIP saloon of Belgrade airport, or suspicious infrastructure investments of Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija.

So far, the Public Procurement Office is the only institution that has power to stop illegal spending by state companies and bodies. But this institution are authorised to control only the second of all three phases of procurement.

"The Public Procurement Office often supervises tender regularity, but it hasn`t the competency to control neither the realisation of the contract, nor the validity of tender. According to the law, this is audits` task. Audits are invited to judge whether, for instance, a state company with 50 employers needs 200 computers", adds Jovanovic.

Contract amendments have key role in chain of corruption. Once the contract is ratified, endorsers change the essence of it by adding numerous annexes, so that the Procurement Office is not capable of reacting. These annexes regulate enlargement, reduction, delivery date and quality of procurement. It is, therefore, of high importance that the State Audit Institution decides if the procurement is necessary and that it controls every segment of its realisation - the list of ordered and delivered items, documents, customs declarations, accounts, etc.

Only the money from EU funds, assigned to help in realisation of development projects in Serbia, is controlled. The European Court of Auditors, also known as the "financial conscience of Europe", regularly controls expenditure from EU budget and funds, all incomes and outcomes, but also the EU institution finances. Not so long ago, the Court has announced that no progress has been achieved in despite of investing more than 250 million of euro in EU energy saving programme, which proves that these controls are taken very seriously. Although Brussels officials tried to explain, the Luxembourg-based Court has demanded that the European Commission should improve investments` monitoring in such programmes more rigidly.

However, politicians in the European Union have more fear of national auditors. German inspectors have visited the national Ministry of transport lately, after which local media reported that minister was "shaking with fear". If one violates a legal act, it is the business revisal that can cause loosing position and in some cases freedom. German Federal Court of Auditors, which hires 1300 people, checks more than 540 billion euros spent from the federal budget of Germany. In the region Slovenia has achieved the obvious success because its - there are 130 employees, among them 90 auditors, working for Slovenian SAI.

Auditors in Serbia will eventually share the same power. When the State Audit Institution confirms that a state company`s director or minister has violated a law, it is then expected that all irregularities should be corrected in the course of 90 days. If not, auditors will size charges and put report on corruptive state official before parliament, government and the public.

"In situations like this, nobody wants to work with recognised corruptive official and he cannot be hired in civil service anymore. Discouragement is next and inevitable solution", says Jovanovic.

Nemanja Nenadic, from "Transparency Serbia", believes that the state openly delays forming of institution, capable to confront with corruption.

"No one can make me believe that there are no available offices, equipment, computers, and people waiting to be appointed as independent auditors. Serbia has spent more than five trillion dinars in the past five years and taxpayers have no idea what was their money used for. It is absolutely unacceptable", underlines Nenadic.