Speaker Guilty of Conflict of Interest

SERBIA

A committee has found Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Serbia’s parliamentary speaker, in violation of the country’s conflict of interest regulations, daily Politika reports Thursday.

The Committee for Preventing Conflicts of Interest says that she broke the law by simultaneously acting as speaker and as a paid adviser to the Galenika pharmaceutical company.

The committee, which began reviewing Djukic-Dejanovic’s case on July 8, issuing a “non-public measure of warning” on Wednesday which gives her two weeks to resolve the issue.

“I am surprised at yesterday’s decision by the security board that I am in a conflict of interest, but I shall take it as binding for me. As of today, somebody else shall have to do the job for the Galenika company,” daily Blic quoted Djukic-Dejanovic as saying.

The speaker, who is a member of the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia, started working for Galenika two months ago for a monthly fee of €700, Blic reports.

As she explained in an interview with the daily, she was still working as a professor and doctor when appointed to her parliamentary position, and chose to receive a doctor’s salary rather than that of the speaker.