23.11.2016.

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New budget offers opportunity for more expedient financing

Although close to 15% of the Budget of the Republic of Serbia is spent on security, this is not enough because there is no systematic investment, it was pointed out during the meeting between Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) and the Members of Parliament held on November 23, 2016 in Belgrade.

“The budget of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior is more socially oriented and is mostly based on salaries. Only around 2% of the budget of the Ministry of Interior is allocated for development, which hinders the purchase of equipment and new projects”, BCSP researcher Katarina Djokic points out.

BCSP researchers demonstrated through concrete examples how the MPs can contribute to expediency.

Djokic showed that the role of the National Assembly in building a more efficient and sustainable defence system is important, especially at times when there are budget cuts and restrictions.

“Adopting a more realistic budget and checking if the resource expenditure sustains and improves defence system capabilities ensures that good progress is made in realizing strategic goals and missions of the institutions”, Djokic says.

BCSP researcher Vladimir Erceg reminded that it is necessary to bring together finance and policy goals.

“In order to build an efficient and sustainable defence system it is crucial to define the priorities of modernization and at the same time to analyze expenditures for such modernization and compare it against the alternatives; it is also necessary to organize a joint meeting of the two parliamentary committees”, Erceg points out.

It was highlighted at the meeting that more attention should be paid to the rights of the employees of security sector. It is necessary to improve their status, which doesn’t include only their economic status, but also the procurement of equipment and protection, participant concluded. {image2}

The new budget will soon be discussed in the Parliament and the Parliament is ready to take part in the public procurement process.

“Civil society is important in regulating the work of state institutions and it is good to acknowledge that these issues are important, even though they are not at the center of the public's attention”, Marija Obradovic, president of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee, said.

Members of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee and the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending participated in the discussion.

The event was part of the project PRO-CURE Strengthening Civil Scrutiny of Public Procurement in the Security Sectororganized by BCSP and Society Against Corruption with the financial support of the EU Delegation to Serbia and the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Republic of Serbia.

Report was translated by BCSP Intern Aleksandra Lazic.

 

 

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