COVER STORY
Summer 2016 / Issue 50
15, 2015. Transparency Serbia
described the inclusive legislative
development process as a best
regulatory practice and an example of how all laws and regulations
should be developed. The Law
also received positive reviews from
the EU Commission and business
associations.
This new law is a critical element of Serbia’s efforts to improve
its business environment, which
had been plagued by inspection
bodies that were uncoordinated
and focused on punishment rather
than compliance. Thanks to USAID
BEP’s work with the Ministry and
a wide group of stakeholders,
the new Law is transforming the
way inspections are conducted.
The Law on Inspection Oversight
incorporates modern inspections
standards and features, including
coordination of inspections, risk
assessment, advisory role, preventive measures, and provisions
related to decreasing the grey
economy and ensuring fair competition. The Law also enables more
efficient and cost-effective inspections, stronger and standardized
inspection oversight, and increase
in knowledge and skills of inspectors. The Law requires all inspectorates to react to illegal businesses
or behavior. This is a huge step forward in fighting the grey economy,
and is already changing inspectors’
previous practice of heavily supervising and burdening legitimate
businesses, while declaring incompetence to respond to illegal business entities or actions.
To facilitate proper implementation of the reform, the USAID BEP
helped develop bylaws for the Law.
USAID BEP also developed a comprehensive Guide for Application of
Law on Inspection Oversight, with
explanations, recommendations
and models of enactments, as well
as four methodologies.
The new Law became fully effective on April 30, 2016, with provisions relating to inspection of
unregistered businesses having
been effective since August 2015.
As expected, the new legislation
pushed businesses in the “shadow
economy” to legalize. Data released
by the Serbian Business Registers
Agency show a significant increase
in registration by previously grey
businesses during the first month
of the Law’s full application. In May
2016, there were 58% more newly
registered businesses than in May
2015. Previously, when the Law
mandated inspection oversight
of unregistered entities in August
2015, the Agency registered 71%
more entrepreneurs than in August
2014. Businesses are also starting up and expanding as a result
of inspections getting fairer, more
transparent, and less burdensome.
The USAID BEP continues to
work with the Ministry, inspections, and business associations
to improve inspections and have
a greater impact. Pursuant to an
implementation plan adopted by
the Government of Serbia, the
USAID BEP and its partners are
developing and adopting by-laws,
establishing the coordination
mechanism (managed by the Coordination Commission), launching
and maintaining the e-Inspections
system, developing training and
manuals for inspectors and businesses, monitoring inspectorate
implementation, and communicating with the public. The project
also implemented a Train the Trainers Program that has trained 327
inspectors to train their colleagues
across 34 inspectorates. The
trainers have in turn trained 3,184
inspectors.
AMCHAM MAGAZINE
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