By analyzing the final account of the 2022 state budget, the Fiscal Council established that the Serbian government spent 122 billion dinars or more than one billion euros outside of the usual budget spending, i.e. from the current budget reserve.
“However, it still remains unknown how 500 million euros of those funds were spent. Following the government’s decision, these expenditures are classified as confidential, although they were almost entirely spent outside the security sector,” states the FS in the assessment. of the final account for 2022.
To use the current reserve, all the government needs to do is to adopt a decree at one of its sessions, while spending from the budget and budget review should be approved by the National Parliament. The money spent from the current budget reserve in 2022 is practically twice the maximum allowed by the Law on the Budget System.
“Article 69 of the Law on the Budget System prescribes the maximum amount that can be allocated to the current budget reserve and it amounts up to four percent of total income and receivables from the sale of non-financial assets for the current budget year,” explains the Council.
This translates into about 60 billion dinars, while the government spent over 120 billion dinars.
Of the billion euros spent from the current budget reserve, as much as half was classified as confidential, but only 2.5 percent was spent in the security sector.
The remaining 97.5 percent, or over 59 billion dinars, was redistributed to various government ministries, the Government, administrative districts and other state bodies, whose activity is by definition public, the Council warns.
Around 100 million euros were spent on the procurement of energy products in the international market. 30 million euros was transferred to the State Directorate for Commodity Reserves in order to replenish commodity reserves.
“By far the largest part remains a complete unknown. Specifically, almost 44 billion dinars (about 370 million euros) are not accounted for and it is impossible to trace this amount. For the most part, in fact, it is impossible to determine to which budget beneficiary this money went since the designation is very vague, i.e. state administration bodies, administrative districts and the Government, and it does not provide additional explanation as to which state bodies exactly did this money go to,” the Fiscal Council warns.
(Bloomberg Adria, 02.10.2023)
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