Serbia Today Interview Goran Jesic

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INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK
Interview Sept. 14th 2009
Goran Jesic
President of the Municipality of Indjija

By Milen Vesovic

In conversation with the President of the most successful municipality in Serbia, we tried to get the answer how local governments operate today, in times of economic crisis.

How Municipality of Indjija manages to operate with fewer resources coming from the Republic Government?

From October of last year, with the first announcements of economic crisis in Serbia, we have perceived all the possibilities of savings and made huge cuts in our consumption of both public companies and institutions, as well as within the municipal administration. We eliminated expenses, the use of mobile phones is minimized, we eliminated business trips, optimized work and reduced the number of workers engaged under the contract; we reduced all overheads to a minimum and thus made significant savings in the budget. Only for this reason today, when the transfer of Republic funds is almost abolished, we still manage to operate without major problems. If the Serbian government did a similar thing at a time when we did this , and not only in April this year, now we would have far fewer problems all together.

How is the relationship between the AP Vojvodina with other municipalities in Vojvodina and Indjija, as well as with other municipalities and cities in Serbia?

The municipality of Indjija has very good cooperation with authorities in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, which is reflected in many projects that we have achieved together on the territory of our municipality, and we assume that other municipalities in Vojvodina are in a similar position. When other cities and municipalities in Serbia are concerned, we are trying to make examples of good practice that we have in Indjija and convey them. Often, representatives of other local governments visiting our municipality, join us in perceiving the possibility of realizing certain projects.

For few years already, Indjija is considered as the most successful municipality in Serbia, because of the large number of realized projects and investments. Did you manage to keep some level of development compared to the previous period?

As Indjija is concerned, not only that we kept the level of development comparing to the previous period, but we raised it a bar higher. The first half of the year was extremely difficult, but now things are slowly moving forward, and investors are once again beginning to come into our community. In addition to creating new jobs, the housing construction in the municipality has significantly increased compared to last year, and the filling of our budget despite the economic crisis increased by about 10 percent compared to the same period last year. Thanks to these data, I believe that we have reasons to be optimistic about the development of our community.

What can you announce as projects and investments in the Municipality of Indjija for the next period?

The most important project not only for Indjija but also for Serbia at this moment is the Danish investment company “Grundfos”, which is the largest industrial pump manufacturer in the world. Twenty days ago the company leased 14 hectares of land in our industrial zone, on which they will build a factory worth 100 million Euros, and in which 500 workers will find jobs. Besides that, these days in Indjija begins a construction of new plants for the galvanization of tin, and production of galvanized containers for the company Maximus Ltd. known as "Cinkarna Celje," which last year leased the land, and which will employ about 100 workers. There are announcement of the investment of an Italian company ''Condor'' which will produce scaffolding, prefabricated panels and other equipment for construction, as well as some Austrian company that is preparing to build logistics center in the industrial zone next to the highway Belgrade - Novi Sad. Of course there is the ''IT Park'' whose owners continue with intensive preparation of documentation for the next year beginning of building construction.

Municipality of Indjija is one of the few in Serbia, which used maximally the advantages of new technologies, especially Internet, and enabled its citizens not to come to the municipality and wait for basic documents, but they can be obtained via the Internet. How such things affect the overall picture of Municipalities in Serbia and the world?

We provided to our citizens the possibility that via the Internet they can reach the documents they need, and in addition we provided, perhaps a more significant service, called “System 48'' , where 24 hours a day citizens can report any kind of communal problems. After reporting their problems over the phone or over the Internet, a system operator in the form of a work order refers to the company or institution that is responsible for resolving claims, and the problem must be solved within 48 hours. If it is impossible to solve the problem in that time, the citizen within 48 hours must receive a response when it will be resolved. For the past 5 years, since the “System 48” was introduced, we had about 20,000 applications and about 80% of them were successfully resolved. Our website www.indjija.net in the competition with proper sites of President of Serbia and the Ministry for Diaspora, was declared as the best site in Serbia in the field of electronic management. Basically, the prize was awarded because citizens can order via the Internet their birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, and proof of citizenship. In addition to personal documents, citizens with a user name and password have access to their utility bills, and available to them is an access to voter’s lists, and Geo - information system.

Thanks to introducing modern technology we have achieved enormous progress in communicating with citizens, and last year, Indjija was by a reputable financial magazine "Financial times'', inducted among the top 25 European municipalities for investment. We were in past several years visited by representatives of 99% of municipalities from Serbia, so their municipalities would apply some of the systems that we first introduced. All of that speaks volumes about the reputation that we now have in Serbia and abroad.

You strive for cleaner and more transparent operations in Serbia and the more open state apparatus to citizens. What do you think, why are you alone in this attitude?

The key issue, both on local and national plan, is a clumsy and slow administration, corruption and inefficient public enterprises. Systematic problem resolving is formation of a fast and efficient administration, primarily professional, not political. If you put someone as a head of the administration, just as a political favor, that will destroy the work ardor of others, because the workers will start to think, "Why should I do any work, when they can bring on political basis some fool for supervisor, and I, as a professional, will never thrive because I am not a member of that party. " On the other hand, the public enterprises are the main source of corruption throughout the country and it is very important to first, take controls of them. Here in Indjija, with a reform in administration and public enterprises and with the introduction of the "System 48'' , we managed to make a very transparent system available to all interested individuals. So, in addition to eradicating corruption, we have become partners of the world's largest companies. This process did not happen overnight, but lasted about four years. In Serbia, there is obviously lacking a strong power will to make specific cuts and changes in this regard, so Serbia’s municipalities on that issue, have reduced to just few individual cases.

The main job a Mayor has when he arrives at this position, is to investigate in his head what he wants to use his mandate for: to receive a decent pay and leave, or introduce systemic changes. I decided to do the latter.