On November 15, 2019, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the mayors of six cities and municipalities (Niš, Kragujevac, Sremska Mitrovica, Novi Pazar, Žabalj, and Stari grad) to bolster anti-corruption efforts and strengthen transparent, inclusive and accountable local governance. With the seven new partners, USAID is now partnering with 13 local governments to improve transparency and increase public participation in decision making at the local level.

With over 150 participants, representatives of local governments, public administration, public prosecutors’ offices,, the judiciary, the civil sector, international community, media and whistleblowers, the “Whistleblower Protection at Central and Local Level” was organized jointly by the Serbian Ministry of Justice, USAID Government Accountability Project (GAI), the EU funded “Prevention and Fight against Corruption” Project and the Pištaljka Portal on September 9, 2019.

Within the framework of cooperation and technical support to partner cities and municipalities, the representatives of USAID and the Government Accountability Initiative visited the city of Sombor on 17 July 2019.

USAID Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia, Brock Bierman and representatives of USAID Mission in Serbia, attended the workshops with the representatives of Sombor, Šabac, Vranje, Raška, Sjenica, Dimitrovgrad and Vrnjačka Banja and representatives of Transparency Serbia where they discussed the Local Transparency Index (LTI).