Perpetrators of economic offences

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS)

Group for Justice and Gender statistics

Vesna Zajc and Dragana Nikolić

Head of the Judicial and Gender Statistics Group

Statistical Methodologist

SORS, Belgrade, 5 Milana Rakića 

vesna.zajc@stat.gov.rs;

dragana.nikolic@stat.gov.rs

+381 11 2412922 extension 298

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Data on responsible and legal persons - perpetrators of economic offenses, were obtained on the basis of regular, annual statistical surveys that are carried out using the following forms: "Questionnaire for a responsible person against whom previous proceedings for economic crimes have been completed" (SP-1), "Questionnaire for a legal entity against whom a previous proceeding for an economic offense has been completed" (SP-3), "Questionnaire for a responsible person against whom a legally binding proceeding for an economic offense has been completed" (SP-2) and "Questionnaire for a legal entity against whom a legally binding proceeding has been completed procedure for economic offense" (SP-4).

Forms SP-1 and SP-3 are filled out by the competent public prosecutor's offices when the public prosecutor or deputy states in the case file that the procedure has finally ended with a decision that either rejected the application for economic offense or filed an indictment.

The data are presented in the sections "Reports for economic offenses", especially for responsible and legal persons - perpetrators of economic offenses.

The data collected on the basis of forms SP-2 and SP-4 are presented in the section "Accusations" and "Convictions", especially for responsible and legal entities. These statistical forms are completed by the competent commercial courts after the judge - the president of the panel has confirmed the finality of the decision by which: either the proceedings were terminated, or the proceedings were suspended, or the indictment was dismissed, or the indictment was rejected, or the responsible or legal person was acquitted of the charge or declared liable.

According to the prescribed instructions, data on the perpetrators of economic offenses are collected continuously. Statistical questionnaires are filled in at the moment of the final conclusion of the procedure, in accordance with the legal provisions, in the competent public prosecutor's offices / commercial courts.

The Unique Classification of Economic Offences, prescribed by the SORS, is used in this survey. Data on economic offences are shown by type of economic offence. The classification covers all relevant regulations that provide for penalties for economic offenses.

The statistical survey on the perpetrators of economic offenses includes all responsible and legal persons against whom a complaint for economic offense was filed and proceedings for economic offense were completed, both in the competent public prosecution office and in the competent commercial court. Therefore, the statistical survey covers the entire jurisdiction of public prosecutor's offices / commercial courts in the process of solving economic offenses.

Data on the type of economic offense, the type of decision - filed indictment and dismissed report, duration of the procedure and the applicant for the economic offense are collected for the responsible and legal entities against whom the previous proceedings for economic offense have been completed.

For perpetrators of economic offenses against whom the proceedings for an economic offense have been completed in court, data are collected on the type of economic offense, type of court decision, imposed sanctions, complicity, previous conviction, acquisition, applicant, occupation, activity and duration of the proceedings.

The survey covers the regulations, including all relevant legal provisions contained in laws and regulations passed on the basis of the law, which provide for penalties for a economic offenses

According to the Law on Economic Offences, an economic offence is considered to be a socially harmful violation of the regulations on economic or financial transactions made bya legal entity, a responsible person in a legal entity that has caused or could have caused more serious consequences and is determined by a regulation of a competent authority as an economic offence (Art. 2, paragraph 1 of the Law on Economic Offences).

The term responsible persons - perpetrators of economic offenses means the responsible persons in a legal entity who violated the rules on economic and financial operations, against whom the proceedings on the application for economic offenses have been completed, then the accused responsible persons against whom the proceedings for economic offenses have been completed and convicted responsible persons.

A legal entity - the perpetrator of an economic offense is considered to be a legal entity that has violated the rules on economic and financial transactions, against whom the proceedings on the application for an economic offense have been completed, then the legal entity has been charged and convicted.

It is considered that the reported person is the one responsible, i.e. the legal person - the perpetrator of the economic offense against whom the proceedings for the economic offense report have been completed by the decision of the competent public prosecutor's office, which either rejected the report or filed an indictment.

It is considered that the accused person is the one responsible, i.e. a legal person - the perpetrator of an economic offense against whom an indictment has been submitted to the competent court, and the proceedings are concluded with a decision by which: the proceedings are suspended, or the indictment is rejected, or the indictment is rejected, or the perpetrator is acquitted of charges, or found responsible and acquitted of punishment, or found responsible with the imposition of a sanction. For responsible persons, cases of termination of proceedings are also included.

A "convicted person" means a legal person who has been declared responsible, against whom sanctions have been imposed: a fine (unconditional or conditional) and protective measures, as well as a person who has been declared responsible and acquitted  from punishment.

  If one responsible person, that is, a legal entity, has committed several concurrent economic offenses, data is collected only on the most serious    economic offense, while the other concurrent offenses are summarized as "number of concurrent economic offenses".

  When several responsible, i.e., legal persons participated in the execution of one economic offense, each participant is considered a unit of observation, and the same economic offense is recorded as a characteristic of each participant - accomplice, with the answer to a special question determining whether it is complicity

The term "type of decision" means the decision of the competent public prosecutor's office, i.e. the court by which the procedure has been legally concluded.

The data are published at the level of the Republic of Serbia and the regional level. Some data are displayed at the level of commercial courts. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia since 1999 has no data for AP Kosovo and Metohija, so they are not included in the data for the Republic of Serbia (total).

Data are available on the SORS website since 2004, while data for previous years can be found in the Library of the Republic Statistical Office.

Not applicable.

Number of reported, accused and convicted responsible persons and legal entities.

The calendar year.

The survey is conducted on the basis of the Law on Official Statistics "Official Gazette of RS", No 104/09, 24/11 and the Regulation on determining individual statistical surveys for each year, as well as according to the Program of Official Statistics of the Republic of Serbia, which refers to the five-year period of conducting the survey.

There are no international recommendations for these surveys.

Confidential data are treated in accordance with the prescribed confidentiality principles. See  Law on Official Statistics.

Calendar publication is available on the official website of the SORS.

 Users can download statistical information about the legal entity against which the proceedings for an economic offence procedure hav been terminated from the official website of the SORS,  or from the link Perpetrators of economic violations.

The dynamics of dissemination is annual. The first results of the survey are published in a shorter form - Statistical Release, and the deadline for their publication is the end of August. Data in the Bulletin are published at the end of December.

Not applicable.

On the SORS website, online databases are available first on find the dissemination database and on Perpetrators of economic violations.

Macropods are not available.

• Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Serbia
• Statistical Calendar
• Other publications .

Not applicable.

Quality management system

Data obtained from public prosecutor's offices on reported perpetrators of economic offenses against whom criminal proceedings have been completed, as well as data obtained from commercial courts are based on reliable data from appropriate administrative sources. The degree of accuracy is high. Before publishing the results, logical quality control data is performed.

In addition to the data published in the regular publications of the SORS, special processing is done at the request of the user.

User satisfaction is measured based on the volume of data download from the official website of SORS as well as by means of the survey on user satisfaction. The results of this survey are available on the  website of the SORS.

The statistical survey of  the perpetrators of economic offenses includes all responsible and legal persons against whom a complaint for commercial offense was filed and proceedings for economic offense were completed, both in the competent public prosecution and in the competent economic court.

Therefore, the statistical surveys covers the entire jurisdiction of public prosecutor's offices and commercial courts in the process of solving economic offenses.

The survey covers the regulations, including all relevant legal provisions contained in laws and regulations passed on the basis of the law, which provide for penalties for a economic offense.

The survey is conducted on the basis of data from administrative sources, which ensures a high level of coverage and quality of data.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

National level: 6 months for the process of creating, processing and publishing data.

For Eurostat: they are not delivered.

There is no time limit in the comparability of statistical data.

Not available.

Not available.

• SORS costs concern the work on methodology, printing, and distribution of forms, data processing, and dissemination.                 
• Costs of reporting units: filling and distribution of forms.

Basic principles and standards for conducting audits of published statistical data are defined in the document "General Policy Audit" SORS.

The audits in this survey are in line with the changes in the Law on Commercial Offenses and the needs of users. Previously published data cannot be changed.

The survey is based on administrative data.

The survey period is annual, with data being collected monthly. The data are collected by reporting method and for the first stage of the procedure at public prosecutor's offices / commercial courts, as reporting units, it is carried out using forms SP-1, SP-2, SP-3 and SP-4. The forms are filled in at the moment of the termination of the proceedings. The main sources from which the data are retreived are the final decisions of the public prosecutor's office / commercial court.

The SORS  prescribes a complete methodology for conducting the survey, develops and updates necessary methodological instruments (form, instructions for filling), which are submitted to reporting units (competent public prosecutor's offices / commercial courts). In addition, SORS also performs control of data coverage and accuracy, encryption, entry of data records, logical and computational control of the latter. The final stage is the publication of survey results.

  In December, SP-1/2/3/4 forms are prepared and printed in SORS for all reporting units on the territory of Serbia for the following year. At the    end of  December and beginning of January, forms are distributed to reporting units. The deadline for submitting data for the previous year for     AP Vojvodina is until April of the current year. The first survey  results are published in the Communication Statistical Release, and the b         deadline for their publication is the end of August. Data in the Bulletin are published at the end of December.

The following forms were created for that surveys:

•   SP-1 Questionnaire for the responsible person, against whom the previous proceedings for economic offense have been  completed,
•   SP-3 Questionnaire for a legal entity against whom the previous proceedings for an economic offense have been completed,
•   SP-2 Questionnaire for the responsible person against whom the proceedings for economic offense have been legally terminated
•   SP-4 Questionnaire for a legal entity against whom the proceedings for an economic offense have been legally terminated

SORS also performs the control of the coverage and accuracy of the data, coding, data log entries, logical and calculation control of the data.

Not available.

Not available.

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