The Contact Center for Reporting Irregularities During the COVID-19 Pandemic Opened

Citizens and businesses can now report price gouging of food, medicines, medical supplies and protective equipment to a unified Inspections Contact Center at 011 / 6350-322 or through the inspector.gov.rs website. Operators will forward the complaint to the competent inspection in order to prevent market irregularities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Contact center was launched by the Government, in cooperation with the Ministry of State Administration and Local Government, the Support Unit for the Coordination Commission for Inspection Oversight, the Office for IT and eGovernment and NALED, with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which supports the inspections reform in Serbia within a two-year project.

In order to help mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic on the growth of the shadow economy, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has made possible for the Contact Center to be set up in just five days.

Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Branko Ruzic , said that the state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 virus pandemic has accelerated the start of the Contact Center's work, since individuals who wish to take advantage of this situation may also be found in this situation.

- Our intention is to protect citizens and businessmen from unscrupulous behavior through the Center’s work, he explained, and expressed gratitude to partners from the EBRD, the Office for IT and NALED for their willingness to divert a part of their activities to address the health and economic consequences of  the virus’s spread.

Following the end of the pandemic, he explained, the Contact Center, together with eInspector, will be the focal point of a modernized inspection system and will make inspections more efficient, as well as strengthen confidence in the inspection system, public administration and the rule of law.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Director for the Western Balkans, Zuzana Hargitai, recalled that this institution has been helping to improve the inspections’ work over the years, assessing that they are doing far better and in a more modern way today than they were when they were perceived as a burden to the economic development, rather than support.

- We are proud that we can help Serbia in this state of emergency and that we were able to start a Contact Center earlier than planned, where citizens will be able to complaint possible irregularities, she said.

Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Mihailo Jovanovic, said that the new contact center will provide time savings that will be visible immediately. According to him, each complaint will be recorded in the CRM system, after which it will be sent electronically, with a degree of urgency, to the competent inspection service and recorded in the eInspector information system.

- Before this, applications were sent by post, and took a long time to arrive at the proper inspection. The goal is to establish deadlines and standards, and to increase the efficiency and transparency of inspection services through timely and responsible inspections’ actions, Jovanovic explained.

Due to movement restrictions, operators will be available from 9am to 4pm, and it is possible to leave a complaint as a voicemail outside of business hours. Throughout the day, it is also possible to submit online complaints via a simple contact form at www.inspektor.gov.rs, which is also the most efficient way to get an answer as soon as possible.

Complaints may also be submitted anonymously, and those who leave contact information will receive feedback within 72 hours regarding which national-level inspection it has been forwarded to. National-level inspections have a legal deadline to notify the applicant of the process’s course.

NALED's Policy Director, Jelena Bojovic, specified that citizens submit approximately 1,600 complaints to inspections each week, and now they the reporting is made easier because they do not need to know to which jurisdiction their problem belongs to. Establishing a Contact Center, she stressed, is one of the key measures of the National Program for Countering Shadow Economy and anyone who notices busines practice in the gray area, consumers’ or workers’ rights violation, or questioning the safety of products or services, may file a complaint to any of the 44 national-level inspections at a single place.

Through this Contact Center, it is also possible to file a complaint regarding the actions of the national-level inspections’ officials.

What citizens and businesses will not be able to report arethe  problems within the provincial and local inspections’ jurisdiction, such as utilities, municipal services, traffic, noise, unauthorised sales, construction of facilities within the jurisdiction of the municipality/city, and other.

In these situations, the operators will refer them to the competent provincial or local inspection.


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