Administrative districts are established by the government through a decree that determines the territory and headquarters of the administrative district (Article 39, paragraph 1 of the Law on State Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Law). With this decree, the government also establishes the conditions under which the state administration bodies may form regional units for two or more administrative districts, one or more municipalities, cities or autonomous provinces (Article 39, paragraph 3 of the Law).
The term administrative district is defined by Article 38 of the Law on State Administration (“Official Gazette of RS”, Nos. 79/05, 101/07 and 95/10), which stipulates that an administrative district is formed to perform state administration functions outside the main state administration of the entity. In the administrative district, the state administrative bodies perform certain tasks by their own decision and form their own district unit through the Law on Internal Organisation and Systematisation of Workplaces.
There are 29 administrative districts in the Republic of Serbia. The Decree on Administrative Districts (“Official Gazette of RS” No. 15/06, hereinafter referred to as the Decree) establishes the administrative districts and determines their names, territories and headquarters.
In the administrative districts, administrative matters are decided in the first instance, appeals are decided when the first instance has been decided by office holders, the work of office holders is supervised and control supervision is carried out (Article 3 of the Regulation).
The powers of the Head of the Administrative District are set out in Article 40, paragraph 2 and Article 7, paragraph 2 of the Regulation, according to which the powers of the Head of the Administrative District are, inter alia, “to coordinate the work of the regional district units and to supervise the implementation of the directives and instructions given to them, to supervise the implementation of the work plans of the regional district units and to ensure the conditions of their work, to supervise the work of the employees in the regional district units and to propose the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against them” and so on.
On the basis of Article 43, paragraph 3 of the Law, the Ministry responsible for administrative affairs supervises the expediency of the professional service of the administrative district, controls the competence of its employees and issues instructions to it.
Article 42 of the Law regulates the establishment of the Administrative District Council and the Regulation on the functioning of the Administrative District Council (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 15/06). The council of the administrative district consists of the district administrator and the presidents of the municipalities and the mayors of the cities from the territory of the administrative districts. The council meetings are convened and chaired by the district administrator and take place at least once every two months. The district administrator is obliged to submit the council’s proposals to the minister responsible for administrative affairs, who must inform him or her at least once a year about the work of the administrative district council. The council of the administrative district coordinates, among other things, the work of the regional units of the state administrative bodies and the municipalities and cities from the territory of the administrative district and makes proposals for improving the work of the administrative districts (Article 2 of this Regulation).