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REPORT ON THE CONFERENCE
“BELGRADE ANTI-CORRUPTION DAYS”
The conference Belgrade Anti-Corruption Days has been held on 18-19 of May 2006 at the premises of the Government of Serbia building. The conference is organised by the Embassy of Switzerland and the Anti-Corruption Council of the Government of Serbia with the support of Basel Institute on Governance. The aim of the Organiser of this conference was to start up cooperation between Anti-Corruption Council, Embassy of Switzerland and Basel Institute, that is expected to enforce implementation of the international legal instruments in the fields of fight against corruption, money laundering and organised crime in Serbia. It has been planed that through counselling among international and domestic experts about reasons, consequences and possible legal remedies intended for corruption and money laundering, the conference Belgrade Anti-Corruption Days, provide theoretical and practical knowledge in the fields of corruption prevention, investigation and persecution, money laundering and banking regulations, as well as with international cooperation in this field towards the Council and to other relevant institutions. The expected result was to establish formal and non formal long lasting contacts among experts and specialised institutions from Serbia and abroad.
From domestic participants, the conference organisers principally invited representatives of judiciary, legislative and executive power in Serbia, then representatives of the institutions in charge for implementation of anti-corruption laws, prevention of money laundering and organised crime in Serbia (Public Procurement Office, Finance Committee of the Parliament os Serbia, Republic Committee for Resolving Conflict of Interests, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, then Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering, Office for fighting the organized crime – UBPOK, Belgrade District Court – Department for Organized Crime, and Prosecutor for Organized Crime), representatives of judiciary (Judges Association of Serbia, Association of Prosecutors, the highest level representatives of the Supreme Court, Republic Office of the Prosecutor of Republic of Serbia, district and municipal courts in Belgrade), Bar Association Of Serbia, Belgrade Chamber of Economy, missions of international organisations in Belgrade (OSCE, Council of Europe, UNDP), media, as well as numerous experts on the fight against corruption, money laundering and organised crime (Enclosure 1: List of participants).
Belgrade Anti-Corruption Days had been organised in the form of six plenary sessions that were opened through lectures of international and domestic experts and concluded with discussions:
- Introduction,
- Corruption prone areas,
- The Link between corruption and organised crime,
- Money Laundering,
- Conducting a successful corruption investigation – techniques, preconditions and stages,
- Prosecution and international judicial assistance.
The conference was opened by Ambassador of Switzerland to Serbia and Montenegro, His Excellence Mr. Wilhelm Meier, and the President of Anti-Corruption Council, Mrs. Verica Barać.
The opening session of the Conference that was open to the media, have been participated by the huge number of journalists (Enclosure 2: Media report).
EXPERTS’ SPEACHES
First day:
Within introductory session Prof. Dr. Mark Pieth, Professor for Criminal Law, University of Basel, President, OECD Working Group on Bribery, President of the Board of Basel Institute on Governance, spoke about the topic “International standards and treaties against bribery and money laundering” and Mrs. Zora Ledergerber provided the public with “A comparative view at anti-corruption efforts in South-Eastern Europe”. From domestic experts in introduction part spoke Mrs. Miroslava Milenović, certified accountant, independant expert in problem of paralel economic system of "black money", member of American Asociation of Certified Anti Money Laundering Specialists and certified fraud examiner.
Within session “Corruption prone areas“, Mr. Jean-Bernard Schmid from Geneva Investigating Magistrate spoke about issue “ Promoting integrity in the judiciary “ and Mr.Mark Carroll from United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service, spoke about “Curbing corruption in public procurement, public licensing and privatisation”. Mrs. Verica Barać, President of the Anticorruption Council of The Government of Serbia, spoke about “Areas of particular exposure to corruption in Serbia and Montenegro“.
At the end of the first conference day, in the framework of the session “The link between corruption and organised crime”, spoke Mr. Mark Carroll, Mr.Markus Mohler, Former Chief of Police of Basel City and Lecturer of Public Law, University of Basel, and Mr. Vučko Mirčić from Investigating Magistrate on Organised crime of Belgrade District Court.
Second day:
Mrs Zora Ledergerber, opened the session on Money Loundering by giving lecture on ”The legal and institutional anti-money laundering framework”, and Mr. Mark Carroll gave a lecture about conducting investigation on corruption and money laundering.
In the framework of the session “Conducting a successful corruption investigation – techniques, preconditions and stages” spoke Mr. Markus Mohler, and Mr. Josip Bogić, former head of Office for fight against organized crime – UBPOK, presented “Investigative means of the local police and potential legal and practical barriers to using them”.
At the ending session, on the subject of “Prosecution and international judicial assistance”, spoke Mr. Jean-Bernard Schmid, and Mrs. Radmila Dičić, judge of Belgrade District Court, department for organised crime.
The conference concluded with the case studies on corruption in Serbia.
His Excellence Mr. Wilhelm Meier and Mrs. Verica Barać provided concluding speeches about perspectives on fight against corruption in Serbia and further cooperation of Embassy of Switzerland, Anti-Corruption Council and Basel Institute.
CONCLUSION
We consider that the aim of the conference Belgrade Anticorruption Days has been entirely achieved. Conference speeches provided participants, same as broader public acquainted with conference work via media, with clear picture about size of the problems of corruption and money laundering in Serbia, as well as with detailed information about international standards and techniques in combating corruption and money laundering, as well as with problems in the implementation of those standards in Serbia .
The most important is that the Conference opened further perspective, in concrete cooperation between Embassy of Switzerland, Anticorruption Council and Basel Institute for Management in the fields of implementation of international standards in the fight against corruption and prevention on money laundering in Serbia, as the one of the key factors for the processes of Serbia democratisation and her way toward European integration.
Belgrade, 5 June 2006
PRESIDENT
Verica Barać
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