"The number of applications to the Agency in the first nine months of 2018 is higher than the total number of applications in 2017, as well as in relation to the total number of applications in 2016," said the institution headed by Sreten Radonjić on the system "Report the Corruption".
The submission of the application in writing, verbally, by mail or electronically is provided by the Anti-Corruption Law and has been practiced since the beginning of the application of this law - January 1st, 2016, i.e., since the beginning of the Agency’s work.
In 2017, 69 applications were filed to the Agency due to the existence of suspicion of endangering public interest indicating the existence of corruption, six of which were filed electronically - 18 by email and 18 verbally in the minutes (by phone or by giving the statement at the Agency).
By September 1st this year, 75 applications were submitted, of which 31 were electronically, 15 were emailed and 10 verbally to the record by telephone or at the Agency itself.
Former member of the Agency's Council, executive director of the Network for Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) Vanja Ćalović Marković, believes that these are not the results which the Agency can be proud of.
"Every year, MANS is addressed by 400 to 500 citizens reporting corruption cases or seeking information from state institutions. An extremely small number of applications submitted by citizens to the competent institutions show that they have no confidence in their work," Ćalović Marković said.
He also believes that the structure of these applications is important, and what citizens are willing to apply to institutions. In the case of the Agency, it is convinced that the allegations of corruption are at the lowest level and that no citizen has dared to report a more serious case involving a high official. "Of course, this is not a surprise when we have in mind that the Agency has so much more strictly persecuted those who have been fighting against the corruption, than any corrupted official. For this reason, citizens obviously will not risk becoming a target of political repression of ASK if they file an application against someone from the ruling party," says Ćalović Marković. She is convinced that the number of those addressing the Agency will continue to be low as long as Radonjić is in charge, a person who, in her words, has not processed any corruption cases in his career, and has been brought to the rank of director because of the family ties with the top managers from the ruling party.
The Agency believes that more factors are to be given the credit for increasing the number of applications annually. "This may be the result of a greater citizen's awareness of the Agency (according to the research of Defacto and Damar Plus, at the end of 2016 and 2017, the Agency takes the first place on the list of authorities to report corruption by the citizens), continuous anti-corruption campaigns by the Agency, effective protection of applicant's anonymity by the Agency, as well as the Agency's non-selectivity in dealing with submitted applications," stated the institution. Ćalović Marković, however, points out that there are two good examples of how the Agency really protects the applicants. "We saw how ASK treated Mirjana Drašković and Pobrić Patricija when it joined the campaign against the whistles instead of protecting them," she said. The agency, for example, refused the whistleblower status to former chief veterinary inspector Drašković, who for years has warned of the problematic meat quality, and especially the imported one. Pobrić had submitted evidence to the opposition’s delegate Mladen Bojanic who pointed out that a member of the ruling coalition of Social Democrats, at the Ramada Hotel where she worked, paid for the party’s gatherings from the register of the Directorate for Railways, whose director is a high official.
75 applications were received by the Agency for the first eight months of this year, whereas during the last year there were 69.
Text by Milos Rudovic, on September 24th, 2018, read more at Vijesti
