Sound and efficient public administration is a foundation for the functioning of the state, as it contributes to its ability to ensure high quality public services while strengthening competitiveness and progress. This means that a sound public administration is characterized by reliability, accountability and transparency, as well as the level of technical and organizational capacities that ensures financial sustainability and standardized service. The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a research conducted in spring 2017 involving executive officials in the public administration of Serbia. The purpose of the research was to map the existing capacities of the Serbian public administration, in order to lay the groundwork for the strengthening of those capacities in the period ahead and for reaching the SIGMA principles of public administration applied among EU member states, especially in financial management segment. The findings of the research presented in this paper are part of the primary research findings collected within ERASMUS+ project conducted on the sample of 240 examinees. The authors of this paper participated in the project implementation
