Poll shows half of Serbians satisfied with local authorities

NEWS 15.10.201911:11
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Half of the population of Serbia believe that their local authorities are providing the services they need according to a poll conducted by CeSID,

CeSID polled 11,387 adult citizens of Serbia in 50 towns and cities as part of the Swiss PRO program.  

CeSID said that more than half of citizens of Serbia said that the local administration services which issue birth, death, marriage and other documents function well while a fifth of the polled said that the local tax office does best. Just five percent said the construction and urbanism office operate best in their municipalities. They said that the biggest advances in the operating of municipal authorities have been made in terms of time saved and quality of service. A third of the polled said the local authorities mainly do not take care of the needs of the population while 12 percent said they don’t take care of their needs at all. A third said they are not sufficiently informed about what their local authorities do.

Ninety percent of the polled said they have never given bribes or gifts to any municipal official and 10 percent admitted to giving small bribes or gifts such as coffee, sweets or drinks.

A majority of the polled said they trust their local municipality chief of mayor the most, more than they trust local administration staff. Almost 80 percent of the polled said they feel fully or partly safe in their cities and towns. The people who said they don’t feel safe cited bad infrastructure, badly lit streets, unsafe roads and potholes as well as crime, stray dogs and drug addicts.

Just 13 percent said their living standards are good, two thirds said either average or bearable and one fifth said they were barely bearable while three percent said their lives are unbearable.

CeSID recalled that just 22 percent of the population of Serbia polled in 2010 said the local authorities are taking care of them.