Regulation on National Manager being prepared – Municipal services may be transferred from local to state

The Government of Serbia has formed a Working Group that will work on a draft Regulation on the method of election, rights and obligations of National Managers, as well as local self-governments that choose such a method for entrusting certain municipal services.

This is a solution from the amendments to the Law on Municipal Services, adopted in the fall of last year, which states that local government units, on a voluntary basis, may transfer the authority to manage one or more municipal services to the Republic of Serbia, i.e. the Government.

Darko Glisic, Minister of Public Investments, has been appointed to head the Working Group, which has 30 days to draft the text of the future regulation, while his deputy is Aleksandra Sofronijevic, currently State Secretary at the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, while a proposal for her to take over the position of Minister in that department is also pending in the Parliament.

The working group also includes Sinisa Mali, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Irena Vujovic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Environmental Protection, as well as Minister of Economy Adrijana Mesarovic, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Jelena Zaric Kovacevic and Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic Ivica Kojic.

How can the Government take over municipal utilities and organize public transport, heating, parking or water supply?

Not directly, says the amended Law on Municipal Activities, but by allowing local self-government units, on a voluntary basis, to transfer the authority to manage one or more utilities to the Republic of Serbia, i.e. the Government.

Could such a mechanism, for example, be used to authorize the City of Belgrade to authorize the Government of Serbia to select a National Manager for Public Transport in the capital city? The current text of the Law on Utilities does not provide for any restrictions when it comes to the activities for which local self-governments can transfer the authority to manage to the Republic.

There is, however, a limitation when it comes to providing public scheduled passenger transport by trolleybuses and trams – but even that exception has its own exception.

According to the Law on Municipal Activities, transport by trolleybuses and trams may be provided exclusively by public enterprises established by a local government unit, a limited liability company and a joint-stock company (capital company) whose sole owner is a public enterprise, or whose sole owner is a local government unit, as well as a subsidiary whose sole owner is that capital company.

However, there is an exception – such a legal entity may, with the consent of the founder, contract with another legal entity to provide public scheduled passenger transport by trolleybuses and trams.

At the latest session of the City Assembly, the City of Belgrade adopted the Decision on the adoption of a self-initiative proposal for a public-private partnership project for providing municipal services in urban passenger transport on the territory of the City of Belgrade, or the replacement of existing trolleybus lines with electric bus lines. At the time of publishing this article, this Decision had not been published in the Official Gazette of Belgrade.

When does the National Manager of Municipal Infrastructure come into play?

The Government of Serbia, as stated in the law, on the basis of decisions made by the assemblies of local self-government units on the transfer of powers, selects the National Manager of Municipal Infrastructure (National Manager) for one or more municipal activities, and the law also enables the selection of the National Manager in accordance with the provisions of the law regulating public-private partnership (PPP) and concessions.

The newly established Working Group will have the task, as stated in the Government’s decision, to actively work on the drafting of the text of the Draft Regulation on the mandatory content of decisions of local self-government units, the method of selecting the National Manager, the procedure and criteria for selecting the National Manager, the rights and obligations of the elected National Manager, the rights and obligations of local self-government units after the selection of the National Manager, as well as other issues of importance for the management of one or more municipal activities.

The management of municipal activities, according to the text of the law, includes ensuring organizational, material and other conditions for the construction, maintenance and functioning of municipal infrastructure and the technical and technological unity of the system “in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of the Law”, which otherwise refers to the competence for regulating municipal activities.

The deadline for drafting the text of the regulation is 30 days from the forming of the Working Group - and the decision to this effect was published in the Official Gazette on Friday, January 17, and entered into force the day after its publication.

Vlada Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo građevinarstva, saobraćaja i infrastrukture Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Darko Glišić

Aleksandra Sofronijević

Siniša Mali

Irena Vujović

Adrijana Mesarović

Jelena Žarić Kovačević

Ivica Kojić

national manager

management of municipal activities