Increasing Integrity in Serbia and Local Security in Albania

Last month government representatives from Albania and from Serbia visited The Netherlands to learn more about policies and practices for integrity of civil servants and the Dutch security triangle.

Fifteen Serbian representatives from the Anti-Corruption Agency, Public Prosecution Offices, Court of Appeal and Judicial Academy experienced how the city of Amsterdam deals with integrity issues and how integrity policies are put into practice at the Dutch police. They also became familiar with how the Dutch State Investigation Department cooperates with the public prosecutor in dealing with alleged corruption cases and the role of the National Integrity Office in Dutch policies for anti-corruption and integrity. According to the participants: “We learned about new ways of how to implement integrity in our organisations” and “very useful concepts were introduced that should be applied in all countries”.

Participants are discussing how to implement some of their ideas back home.

The Albanian group consisted of representatives from municipalities, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of State for Local Issues and the Academy of Security. The participants learned about the Dutch security system and the cooperation between municipalities and the emergency services. They visited amongst others the Municipality of The Hague, the Fire Brigade and the Police Academy which was much appreciated by the participants. These study visits provided them with a good opportunity to meet and network with their Dutch counterparts to discuss the security challenges in Albania.

These visits were the last part of the Matra CoPROL Leadership Programme of VNG International, The Hague Academy and other partners.

Head of the Safety Region Hollands Midden, Mr Kessels, explains the safety procedures to the participants.