The greatest aspect of the problem with regards to the implementation of anti-corruption legislation, such as the Law on the Free Access to Information of Public Importance, the Law on Public Procurement, and the Law on the Anti-Corruption Agency, is a consequence of the fact that the penal provisions of these laws are implemented partly or not at all, even in cases of obvious violations of the aforementioned.
Together with the lack of jurisdiction of the independent bodies in charge of implementing these laws to initiate misdemeanor proceedings before courts of law (this being in the jurisdiction of certain ministries), one of the main reasons for this state of affairs is the short period of time before the statute of limitations expires.
The Misdemeanor Law, which is a general law on misdemeanors, envisions that the proceedings cannot be initiated if one year had passed from the time the misdemeanor was committed. However, the Misdemeanor Law enumerated certain areas (customs, foreign currency, foreign trade, etc.) in which specific laws can envision longer statutes of limitation, up to five years in duration. How can we explain the fact that longer statutes of limitation are envisioned for misdemeanors committed by citizens or entrepreneurs, while for the violation of anti-corruption legislature, committed mainly by the «political elite», the statute of limitations is only one year?
Due to the aforementioned, these cases become obsolete in a percentage which is higher than 90%, while the damage this causes is multiple in character.
The efforts of independent state bodies related to the implementation of the anti-corruption legislation are thus devalued, because the number of processed misdemeanors is considerably smaller than the actual number committed, while in the greatest number of cases the statute of limitations expires and the cases become obsolete.
The offenders are actually encouraged in this manner to continue violating the law, because they can count on not being prosecuted with great certainty.
The previously mentioned facts also deepen the already shaken trust of the public in the state and their mistrust that the state is ready to sanction the violators of anti-corruption legislation. This, in turn, destimulates the overall efforts in the fight against corruption. This has to change. That is why it is necessary for the appropriate initiative amending the Misdemeanor Law, which was recently forwarded to the Ministry of Justice by Transparency Serbia, to be accepted and implemented without further ado.
