The Protector of Citizens determined that the Ministry of Interior did not initiate disciplinary proceedings against police officers pursuant to the Report of the Internal Control Sector, and that in the meantime, the statute of limitations for initiating disciplinary proceedings against the responsible police officers in Novi Sad and the then Chief of Police in Novi Sad has become obsolete.
The failure of the competent civil servants of the Ministry of Interior to take actions, aimed at determining the disciplinary responsibility of the police officers whose omissions in work were determined by the inspections undertaken by the Internal Control Sector, makes the existence of internal control over the legality of police work meaningless, because it is not and it cannot be its own purpose. The purpose of the existence of internal control of the work of the authority is to perform timely, detailed and efficient checks within the authority regarding the actions of its employees, in order to correct the identified omissions, if possible, and/or sanction them in accordance with the law, thus improving the work of the authority.
The Protector of Citizens pointed out the need to take the necessary actions to prevent such actions in the future and thus contribute to building a culture of combating illegality and responsibility for illegal and improper actions, and issued a recommendation to the Ministry of Interior that in its future work, it ensures compliance with the measures imposed in the report of the Internal Control Sector and to take care that the statute of limitations for initiating disciplinary proceedings against the responsible police officers does not become obsolete. This implies an active relationship in terms of monitoring and controlling the actions of the competent police officers, competent disciplinary officers, in implementing the measures ordered by the Internal Control Sector and initiating disciplinary proceedings for failure to act on the imposed measures.