Demostat: Only 14% of respondents trust the Serbian Government

Almost three times as many (48 percent) decisively say they do not trust it. The situation is even worse with local authorities, with only one in ten citizens (10 percent) trusting them, and almost five times as many (48 percent) not trusting them.

In the most brutal way possible, the citizens have been proved right - institutions are not functioning, and the consequence of this is 14 victims of the collapsed concrete canopy at the recently renovated railway station building in the city of Novi Sad.

While culprits are being sought, ranging from “the ravages of time,” which is quite cynical as that is why the renovation was done, to the designer, contractor, whole line of subcontractors, oversight - an increasing number of questions hang in the air, reported Demostat.

The basic question is: how safe are other public facilities? How much documentation is missing, how many usage permits are lacking for major works on roads, institutions, shopping malls, hospitals, stadiums, residential and commercial buildings...

We are now also considering how much corruption has contributed to this state of affairs, which we indirectly see in the circle of the same companies that regularly and for years get public contracts through rigged tenders or without them, or by taking a cut from every state investment in which the prices are blown up.

However, there is no proof, as this is an investigation field inaccessible to public prosecutors. The question is also how much incompetence, bought diplomas or ignorance of the people in charge, from control institutions, inspectors and regulators to the judiciary, appointed not based on knowledge and ability but along party lines or just plain interest, have contributed to the distrust and limited reach.