Novi Pazar and Veliko Gradiste Top Transparency Index

Transparency Serbia today, September 23, published the 2026 Local Transparency Index (LTI), a survey covering 145 local self-government units and 25 city municipalities across Serbia. The average score is 52 out of a possible 100 points, the same result as in the previous three years, meaning local government transparency has now stagnated for a fourth consecutive year.

First place on the list, with a score of 97, is shared by Novi Pazar and Veliko Gradiste. Novi Pazar stood alone at the top of the table for four years, while Veliko Gradiste placed second in both LTI 2025 and LTI 2024, and third in LTI 2023. Third place went to Tutin with 90 points, a municipality that has placed fourth three times over the last five years.

Cities and municipalities are ranked according to 98 indicator questions that measure various aspects of how openly local governments operate, with scores running from zero to one hundred. This year’s range spans from 28 to 97 points.

Fourth and fifth place are shared by Kanjiza and Kragujevac, each with 84 points. This marks the first time Kragujevac has placed among the top ten, after jumping from 24th to sixth place in the previous cycle. Leskovac follows in sixth place, Pirot is seventh (it was 11th last year), Bor and Zrenjanin share eighth, while Novi Sad and Sabac share tenth.

At the opposite end of the table are Presevo with 28 points, Bujanovac (31), Alibunar (32), and Lucani and Bosilegrad, both with 33 points.

Among Serbia’s four largest cities, Belgrade placed 89th with a score of 48, improving on last year’s position (99th, 46 points). Novi Sad raised its score by nine points, climbing from 26th to 10th place. Nis, by contrast, lost eight points, dropping to 58 and falling from 16th to 35th place.

By category, improvement was recorded in only two of eight areas, with declines in six. Research coordinator Zlatko Minic said the biggest gain came in the “work reports” category, which recovered to 62.9 percent after last year’s drop, though it remains below its 2023 and 2024 levels. The opposite trend appeared in public procurement: after the obligation to publish information on the procuring authority’s website was abolished, the average in that area fell to 36 percent. The budget category held steady at 63.2 percent, with growth in the number of public hearings and public meetings held (102 in total, 35 more than a year earlier). Minic also noted that, for the first time, every municipality and city in Serbia published its budget on its own website.

Continuous progress remains rare. Only two local governments, Veliko Gradiste and Zabari, have recorded uninterrupted growth in their scores since 2020, and Novi Pazar and Bogatic since 2021. By contrast, some municipalities that once scored highly have since seen sharp declines, such as Uzice, Sokobanja and Zajecar, or multi year slides, such as Sombor, which has fallen to 66 points after holding second place with a score of 88 three years ago.

Nemanja Nenadic, program director of Transparency Serbia, explained the reasons behind the stagnation:

“Experience shows that better results are achieved when laws prescribe transparency and sanctions for violations, and when those sanctions are actually enforced, while abolishing such obligations quickly leads to a decline in good practice. The LTI, as a long term monitoring mechanism, continues to serve as an incentive for local governments to improve transparency, and for citizens to recognize where and how they can demand better results from their municipalities.”

Nenadic added that the main conclusion of this year’s survey is a continued stagnation at a low level, and that sustainable mechanisms are needed, through both local government acts and republic level regulations, that precisely define procedures, obligations and accountability for their implementation.

Filip Bojtler, head of development cooperation at the Swiss Embassy, said the survey results show local governments what they need to change in order to become more transparent and more accountable to citizens, adding that the stagnation shows additional effort is needed. Bojtler also pointed out that two small municipalities occupy the very top of the list, which in his view shows that the size of a local government is not a factor in its success. Mauro Puco, head of the Rule of Law and Human Rights Department at the OSCE Mission to Serbia, said the most important thing is the sustainability of good results, so that they become part of institutional practice rather than the commitment of individuals, and that draft decisions should be published before they reach the agenda of local assemblies.

Veliko Gradiste municipality president Dragan Milic said first place on the list obliges the municipality to establish a sustainable system of cooperation with citizens and greater trust in local government. Novi Pazar mayor Nihat Bisevac said the city’s goal is for citizens to be informed about the work of the government and included in preparing and carrying out the budget. Nihad Gusinac, assistant to the president of Tutin municipality, said the municipality, which he described as underdeveloped, reached third place on the list by opening up to its citizens.

Whether the next survey will show progress beyond the 52 point average, or whether the LTI will remain unchanged for a fifth consecutive year, will depend above all on whether transparency gets regulated through republic level laws, as Nenadic suggested, rather than being left to the good will of individual local governments.