“Of the national budget planned for 2022, a large part is allocated to defence, while for other large amounts of money no one knows how they will be spent”, warn economic journalists Milan Ćulibrk and Mijat Lakićević.
The editor-in-chief of NIN weekly, Milan Ćulibrk, says that a large part of Serbia’s budget goes to the military needs, and adds that we will never know the reason for that.
“We cannot see on what the money from the military budget is going to be spent on. Another problem is that the state has planned to spend 4 billion euros next year. Of this, 500 million euros will be planned expenditures for the Serbian army. A further problem is that a huge part of the budget reserves is subsequently transferred to the military budget by government decrees, without the Serbian Parliament, the country’s top legislative body, having any say in it,” Culibrk warns.
Budget spending should be much more transparent, Ćulibrk said and added that there was also a problem with the non-transparent allocation of state subsidies. “Everything depends on the discretionary decisions of the government,” he said.
Journalist Mijat Lakićević adds that the big problem is that a huge amount of money is spent on infrastructure works, also in a non-transparent manner. “These infrastructure works are a form of corruption. It is a mechanism perpetually used by this government for several years now,” Lakićević told N1.
By giving pensioners financial assistance from the state budget before the upcoming elections, Ćulibrk says that is “a good way to lubricate the voting machine. On the other hand, the question is how long our government will decide at its discretion how much it will grant and to whom it will give.”
“This country is like a reverse Robin Hood – taking from the poor and giving to the rich. This is a disastrous state. If you want to give money to someone, give it to the poor, not to everyone. Because if you do that, the poorest will be deprived of it,” Lakićević concluded.
(Bizlife, 14.11.2021)
https://www.bizlife.rs/ekonomski-novinari-o-budzetu-ogromne-pare-a-ne-znamo-kako-se-trose/
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