Searching for corruption in Serbia

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of the state of corruption in Serbia, based on available empirical evidence produced by the penal law‐enforcement agencies themselves. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses an analysis of available documents, criminal cases of the Municipal Court of Belgrade, data from the Public Prosecution Office and the National Statistical Bureau. Given the scarcity of research in Serbia, the usual inaccessibility of judicial sources, the study is a first reconnaissance based on what is available at present. Findings - The basic finding is a huge gap between what the people experience about corruption and what is eventually prosecuted. The law‐enforcement agencies address this phenomenon haphazardly and in a fragmented manner, displaying a fundamental lack of data management, resulting in lack of transparency. Research limitations/implications - Research in such a sensitive area and within a political culture of opacity, addressing incomplete data, will in its first stage yield limited results. The project will be continued with additional interviews with knowledgeable people, extension of the statistics and validation and comparison of other anti‐corruption bodies as far as they have a measurable output. Practical implications - The short‐term practical implication is that researchers “got over the threshold” and entered the law enforcement “chambers”. Practical applications concern the contribution to transparency, which is required for doing research and impacts on the way the practitioners address their own practice. Originality/value - The paper addresses a certain field in a country that has so far been only scantly researched.