Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Branko Ruzic has said that he expects that the insufficient number of employees in the inspection services will be resolved next year and that the inspection service has been hit the most by rationalization, resulting in paradoxical situations that inspection oversight is performed by only one person in some districts.
“Only one health inspector works in Jablanica and Pcinja District, in Nisava district, as well. We are in the situation that one inspector performs four different inspections at the local level, which is unsustainable,” said Ruzic, who has met with the Coordinating Commission that controls the work 40 republican inspections today.
According to data, the inspector-population ratio in Serbia is 1:1.200, and 1:780 in Europe.
This fact, according to Ruzic, highlights the need for staff recruitment in order for inspection services to work in accordance with the government’s strategy to combat the shadow economy and in the interest of the economy and citizens of Serbia.
“I expect that the next year will be the year of optimization, rather than rationalization that has become a euphemism for dismissal for some people. I think that we have entered a new epoch now in which we will opt for the optimum way of recruitment in those services, even in the inspection services, in order to achieve the goals that are necessary for the government and citizens’‘ said Ruzic.
He added that operation of the inspection services became more transparent in the past two years, due to the implementation of the Act on Inspection Oversight, which was adopted in 2015, and the economic environment is far more predictable.
The Minister emphasized that it is important for citizens and businessmen not to understand the work of inspection services as punishment because they now have an advisory function.
The work of inspection services is in the function of safety of all citizens when using a product, sending a child to school or kindergarten, going to a restaurant, paying taxes … Inspectors are not enemies, they work in the interest of all of us’‘ Ruzic said.
He highlighted the fact that the Labor Inspectorate found 13,716 illegal workers in the first seven months of this year, 12,861 of which were employed after oversight control as the most significant result in the fight of the state and inspection services against shadow economy.
In addition, since August 2015, more than 8000 controls have been carried out on unregistered economic operators, such as car mechanics in undeclared garages, boutiques in apartments, and so on – and 50% of them have declared their activities after oversight control.
The Minister recalled that regular consultative activities were launched between inspections and the economy, and that consideration was given to the possibility and the modalities for the introduction of economic advisors – specialized experts who would act as advisors for the economy in relation to objections to inspection oversight.
The next major step of this reform expected by the end of 2018 is the eInspector- the unique platform for the work and reporting of all 40 inspections, Minister Ruzic announced.