11Dec2015

Work meeting: reorganization of Ministry of Interiors within reform process in Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security)

Work meeting within NCEU for chapter 24, where the participants have discussed about police reform, reorganization and systematization of Ministry of Interior and draft Law on Police, has been held in Belgrade on December 11th in premises of National Assembly.

Special advisor of Minister of Interior, dr Amadeo Watkins stressed that the latest version of Draft Law on Police is on official website of Ministry of Interior and this is not the final document and the procedure of adoption in National Assembly is expected till the end of the year. The main reasons for introduction of new organization structure and system of human resources management are efficient public administration and service of citizens. The entire Ministry has participated in this process, the sectorial meetings of advisors and assistants within Ministry and meetings with unions were held. He emphasized the importance of financial means predominantly donor funds (Embassies and international organizations), as well as the external consultants and experts engaged within process reform (twinning partners from European Union). The distribution of civil servants and police officials is substantial transformation. However, the reforms in system depend on solutions of other respective ministries. Sector for european integrations, international cooperation and planning and Sector for human resources have been established. Regarding Police Directorate, consultations, sectoral meetings and model of transformation were announced for the next year. The main comments of European Commision are: the compliance of mentioned law with the Law on criminal procedure, the establishing of organizational unit i.e. inspectorate for qualitative revision, polygraph testing, the suggestion for separation of Law on Police and Law on internal affairs.

During the discussion, the following issues have been considered: security checks on commencement of employment and during the employment, informing of person deprived of liberty during arrest, discipline procedure for police officials particularly in cases of domestic violence and submission of appeals. The representative of Ombudsperson has pointed out the suggestions for the enhancement of concrete formulations.

Svetlana Djurdjevic Lukic, Director of CENTRE has mentioned the important issue of protection of weapons considering the frequent cases of domestic violence and suicides of members of MoI, as well as the issue of bylaws passed with substantial delays and without sufficient insight of interested citizens. 

The interest of National Convent is continuation of discussions with representatives of MoI considering the significance of topics for civil society and all citizens in Serbia. Dr Watkins promised the coordinator of WG Sonja Stojanovic Gajic that the next versions of draft i.e. proposal will be posted on website of MoI and updating date and he announced the organization of meeting on the key bylaws.