Potentials for Improving Financial Management Capacities in Serbian Public Administration

Abstract

In the process of joining the European Union the Republic of Serbia is expected to meet the requirements that are deemed to be universally accepted norms of social and government systems of member states. As part of that process, Serbia's public administration, much less efficient than that of member states, is being transformed with a view to attaining the expected efficiency level. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the existing capacities of civil servants in the Republic of Serbia in the area of financial management and the potentials for their improvement. The paper is based on the results of a research conducted under the CBHE ERAMSUS+ project, on a sample of 231 civil servants in the Serbian public administration engaged on budgeting, financial control and internal audit in the period March - May 2017. Authors of the paper were actively involved in the project.