On 18 May, the OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia organised a seminar at the Belgrade seat of the Mission devoted to the presentation of the Draft Act on the State Audit Agency. Addressing seminar attendees, Predrag Markovic, Chairman of the National Assembly, and Ambassador Maurizio Massari, head of the OSCE Mission, underlined the importance of legislating this field and introducing the Audit Agency into Serbia's legal system.

Mr Markovic said that agreement had been reached on the need to adopt the Act on a supreme audit institution, stressing the key role of the Assembly in drafting the Act, which should be prepared by a Sub-Committee of the Finance Committee. Mr Markovic expressed his confidence that the draft Act would soon enter Assembly procedure, while its adoption could be expected as early as this September.

The concept of the draft Act was presented by Radojko Obradovic, vice-chairman of the Finance Committee and chairman of the Sub-Committee.

Seminar attendees were acquainted with the basic functional and organisational solutions contained in the Act; special attention was paid to presenting provisions of the Act related to auditing procedures.

It was especially interesting to hear presentations of foreign experts on the functioning of the Supreme Court of Audit in Slovenia and supreme audit institutions in Central and Eastern European countries in transition.