In the countries in transition, like the Republic of Serbia, system innovations are being introduced, such as the implementation of internal controls in enterprises. The authors of the paper formulated a research question which is if the introduction of internal controls could have an impact on the improvement of governance in public utility enterprises founded by the units of local self government. The main goal of the research was to identify possible improvement in corporate operations measured by an increase in revenues made by public utility enterprises following the implementation of internal controls. In addition to that, the secondary goal of the authors was to determine differences in operating efficiency between public utility enterprises and the so called other enterprises that put in place internal controls in their current operations. Further on, the authors of this paper wanted to find out which type of internal controls in place in public utility enterprises and other enterprises enabled best performance. The usefulness of the study is visible in the presented results of the research. Specifically, they indicate significant differences between public utility enterprises and other enterprises, both in terms of implementation of internal controls and in their performance, which was proven in 2018. In addition to that, performance of public utility enterprises founded by local self-government units is found to be better than that of the so called other enterprises after the introduction of internal controls.

More demanding management requires management to foster the application of different mechanisms. One of the upcoming ways of improving management is the use of the fair value of property and equipment in the business books of the company. The authors of this study emphasize the importance of fair valuation of agricultural equipment, processing surveyed 382 legal entities of the Republic of Serbia, in the case of widespread tractor IMT 533 agricultural holdings in 207 and 175 joint-stock companies. To show the real application of fair value, the research period lasted from 2015 to 2018. We came to the basic conclusion that there is a statistically significant relationship between organizations, enterprises and the age of the tractor to the application of the fair value of the tractor in the business books of the company. There is also a conclusion that fair financial reporting brings about benefits to agricultural entities of other legal forms.

Al Affairs Administration established by local self-governments in the 2016-2019period calls for tenders more and more frequently. Beside public utility companies founded by local self-government units there is an increasing number of the so called “other enterprises” taking part in the bidding. The aim of the authors was to determine at what prices the Local Affairs Administration concluded agreements with the said enterprises that participated in the public bidding. The authors came to relevant findings as they had an insight in the agreements concluded between the Local Affairs Administration and the bidders in the 2017-2019 period. Accordingly, the authors` contribution is in finding that following calling for tenders and tender procedures agreements between the Local Affairs Administration and bidders are concluded at prices that are lower than in case of direct bargaining between the Local Affairs Administration and public utility companies. That is, conducting tender procedures is beneficial to the Local Affairs Administration as less money of taxpayers is spent on the same public utility service.

This study emphasizes the importance of document archiving. The aim of the study is to point out the importance of secure archiving of documentation. The authors conducted a representative survey in 147 companies, which represents about 20% of public utility companies whose founders are local self-government units in the Republic of Serbia. They found that there are significant differences in terms of security of archiving between the so-called electronic archiving and classic form of archiving of documentation in companies. The main conclusion reached by the authors of the study would be that there are far fewer errors in the electronic archiving of documentation compared to the classic way of archiving documentation in companies. After the T-test, the authors found that there are significant differences in terms of security ratings that come from the ratings of top management and employees in internal audit (p = .000) in terms of secure archiving of documentation. The authors also point out that greater security of archiving documentation is achieved in companies that have introduced electronic archiving of documentation.

It has been argued for a long time in academic papers which corporate governance factors have a significant impact on gains of a great number of businessmen. However, such studies rarely examine the impact taxation issues on agriculture. This paper differs from other published papers because its focus is tax on agricultural land in an economy in transition. The primary aim of the authors was to find rules in taxpayers' conduct after being served tax decisions issued by local tax authorities with the assessed tax. The following aim was to find out how tax authorities respond to receiving complaints on the assessed tax lodged by the affected tax payers. The conclusions are as follows: first, there is a difference in tax amounts assessed by local tax authorities relating to property rights of taxpayers resulting from their ownership of agricultural land: second, there is a significant difference in tax amounts assessed following the complaints lodged by taxpayers in all four categories of tax rates set by tax authorities for the four respective zones.

The movement of documentation as part of an implemented audit in the operations and management of an agricultural enterprise can contribute to improving the operation and management of an agricultural enterprise. This generally reduces the risk to the business of the agricultural enterprise. The movement of documentation within the company is done constantly. In this movement it is possible to make mistakes and omissions that will lead to worse business results of the company, which are essentially a consequence of poor internal factors of organization of work and business of top management. Therefore, the authors draw attention to the importance of establishing audit mechanisms that will contribute to improving the overall management of the agricultural enterprise, through better organization of the flow of documentation in the agricultural enterprise. The authors point out that their contribution in this paper is primarily focused on highlighting the importance of the movement of documentation within the company, which is the basis of audit monitoring and giving recommendations to the top management, who will then have the opportunity to make valid business decisions.