BELGRADE – Serbian Anti-Corruption Agency has filed over 500 misdemeanor charges in the area of funding control, with around 200 judgments made in its favor so far, the Agency’s Deputy Director Vladan Joksimovic said Tuesday.

“The Agency has also issued 42 decisions to cut or cancel funding from public sources after these judgments were made final,” Joksimovic told TV B92.

He noted that the law on funding political activity is good, but that the Agency is arguing for stricter control.

“The law is good but it can be better,” said Joksimovic, adding that the amendments were being drafted, but then put aside.

Joksimovic stressed that the claims of heavy corruption in political parties and parties as the generators of corruption do not refer to the funding of political campaigns, where the largest part of the money flow is legal.

The Agency controls all the transactions that go through bank accounts, he said.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the Agency has established that more than 50 persons who made donations to political parties during the 2012 and 2014 election campaigns were welfare recipients.

“The Ministry informed us that it will look into the circumstances under which those 50 persons were granted welfare benefits,” said Joksimovic, adding that in this respect the Agency has established active cooperation with the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering.

Tanjug

11 August 2015