Transparency Serbia: Crisis Headquarters Has No Legal Powers

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The Crisis Headquarters and some of its members have been in the focus of public attention for months and hence have an ethical responsibility, however, it is little known that the body does not have legal powers.

The Crisis Headquarters is not  a "legally regulated body" but an advisory body of the government and is not vested with the power to bring "any type of binding act, and can only provide recommendations to the government on how to act regarding the epidemiological situation and epidemiological measures," Transparency Serbia (TS) said in a comment on its website.

"It is unclear why the government decided to create (the Crisis Headquarters) instead of creating the bodies envisaged by the Law on Protecting the Population from Infectious Diseases and the Law on  Lowering the Risk of Catastrophes and Management in Emergency Situations," TS said.

"The physicians who signed an open letter voiced their demands which are important regardless of the fate of the Crisis Headquarters. Among other things they are asking that the public be told who holds jurisdiction over the database that is behind the COVID website and that a procedure for reliably establishing the number of infected, ill and deceased from Covid-19 is organized both in terms of the general population and among health workers and that an independent investigation establish whether information was purposely covered up," TS said.