Poll: Citizens Do Not Believe that Local Self-Administrations Hire Employees Based on Qualifications

Citizens Do Not Believe that Local Self-Administrations Hire Employees Based on Qualifications (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC/DS)

Every other person in Serbia is satisfied with the services that self-administrations perform while only five percent believe that people are hired by municipal or city administrations solely according to their qualifications and abilities, an Aug. 12 poll conducted by the Center for European Policy shows.

"Concretely, the results show that half of all citizens are generally content with the services that their municipal or city administrations perform, such as issuing excerpts from birth registers or the register of citizens, social protection, construction permits, certificates for enrolling children in school, etc. On the other hand, forty percent of citizens are unhappy with how these services are performed," the Center said in a statement.

The Center also said that citizens encountered the most trouble when attempting to transfer powers or assign responsibilities to someone else, obtaining different information and instructions and complain about being given the runaround, with requests for more and more documents and closed doors.

"In addition, the statistic that just 5 percent of citizens believe that the hiring of servants by municipal or city administrations is completely based on qualifications and expertise, while as many as 82 percent believe that servants are employed completely (54 percent) or partly (28 percent) based on their political and personal connections. Citizens are often reserved or weary of speaking about their experiences," the statement said.