Regarding the information that appeared in the media yesterday, which states that members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia arrested 17 people suspected of falsifying documents and abuse of position, and that among them there are two civil servants employed in the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, hereby, in the interest of the public and in order to accurately inform the citizens, as well as to protect the integrity and institutional reputation, we inform the public that none of the employees of this Ministry participated in the aforementioned illegal actions, nor have they been arrested for this or any other reason.
We strongly deny this information, which we firmly believe is not malicious, but is only the result of a “misinterpretation of the division of tasks and responsibilities of different levels of government, and the existence of transferred responsibilities” at a given moment.
Namely, as numerous media announced yesterday, members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested a total of 17 people, including two registrars who are accused of abusing their position by checking data through the closed databases of the registry services for the purpose of creating falsified documents.
This information has been misinterpreted and related to the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, because this Ministry, in accordance with the current Law on Ministries, performs public affairs related to registry books.
However, registrars who perform tasks related to the personal status of citizens and enter and change data in the Registry Books, are not employed in the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, but in municipal and city administrations that perform these tasks as trustees.