At today's session, the Council of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption considered the Information on the implementation of the Annual Plan for Verification of Reports on Income and Assets.
It was established that in accordance with the adopted Annual Verification Plan for 2022, the Agency fully implemented the first phase of verification and carried out the administrative and technical processing of all received reports.
The annual plan envisages the verification of around 1,330 reports on income and assets in terms of the accuracy and completeness of the submitted data, as well as the determination of other violations of the provisions of the Law on Prevention of Corruption in the following categories:
During 2022, the Agency initiated the procedure of verification of reports on income and assets for 1807 public officials, of which, according to the Annual Plan, verification was initiated for 1,744 reports, 4 at the request of another state body, 16 at the request of a legal or natural person, 14 at an anonymous request, and 29 reports ex officio.
Verification of 1,512 reports was carried out, of which 1,472 were in accordance with the annual plan, 3 at the request of another state body, 12 at the request of a legal or natural person, 13 at an anonymous request and 12 ex officio.
Bearing in mind that the annual verification plan for 2022 envisages the verification of around 1,330 reports on income and assets, and that the verification of 1,472 reports has already been completed, the verification percentage reached 110.7%.
In the second quarter of the current year, the Agency started an additional verification of reports on income and assets for 20 selected officials based on the sensitivity of the area/subjects and function/position held by the public official, and in accordance with the recommendations of the Council of Europe experts.
According to the annual plan for 2022, the number of reports is 1,330, which is 50.47% more compared to the previous year, while the number of completed verifications of reports on income and assets this year is 51.13% higher (2021 – 974, 2022 – 1472).
Based on verification, 403 administrative proceedings were initiated against public officials due to possible violations of the provisions of the Law on Prevention of Corruption, while in relation to other reports of public officials in which there are possible violations of the provisions of the Law, administrative proceedings will be initiated by the end of March 2023.
As part of the second item on the agenda, the implementation of the semi-annual Report on the implementation of the current budget of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption for 2022 was considered.
It was established that the Budget is implemented according to the expected dynamics. The Agency's budget for 2022 is EUR 1,805,373.44, while the plan for 6 months is EUR 882,179.34, of which EUR 621,933.68 has been spent (percentage of execution is 70.50). It is important to note that due to the announcement of local elections in 14 municipalities, in accordance with the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, the monthly consumption of APC budget funds was limited by the spending plan established by the Ministry of Finance for all spending units.