04.01.2019.
The Ministry of Defense is highly liquid
The information given by the Military Syndicate of Serbia and former Defense Minister Šutanovac related to the blockade of the account and the bankruptcy of the Ministry of Defense, threat to the existence of employees in the defense system, as well as the claim that part of the monetary compensation was paid from the accounts of other state institutions, is UNTRUE. Representatives of the Syndicate and the former Minister, prior to launching their campaign of lies, should have double-checked the information and run their “doubts” though the relevant institutions in order not to misinform the employees of the Serbian Armed Forces and the public.
According to the official data of the National Bank of Serbia and the Treasury, the Ministry of Defense has no outstanding obligations in the last three years and the Ministry's account is not blocked. (https://www.nbs.rs/internet/cirilica/67/pn.html, registration number 7093608). The data that appeared on the NBS website indicating that the account was blocked is the result of a technical error made by the court in the text of an individual judgment. Furthermore, since the forced collection system operates through temporary blocking of the accounts, it is not unusual that due to the forced execution of court judgments in the course of a day, the account is charged with certain amounts that are paid on the same day, which does not affect the regular settlement of the Ministry's obligations towards all other users. We would like to recall the fact that over the last two years, the Ministry has paid the largest amount of money settling the 1999 reservists’ lawsuit who won the case on the grounds of discrimination, since due to the decision of Dragan Šutanovac double daily wages were paid only to reservists from Toplički district prior to the elections. In 2018, the Ministry paid out RSD 3 billion, and in 2017, RSD 2 billion to the 1999 reservists; the question is when this process would be completed and how much the state will have to pay for the irresponsible behavior of former Minister Šutanovac.
The blunder, which is not the fault of the Ministry of Defense but of one of the banks, occurred when sending a report on the payment of salaries and cash benefits for the New Year’s packages for the defense employees’ children. Namely, the Ministry of Defense paid salaries and allowances to all employees in MoD and SAF through the Treasury. When sending SMS messages informing their clients about the payment of funds, a technical error occurred in one of the banks, and the Center for the Protection of Infants, Children and Youth was mentioned as the payee, while on the bank's statement it is indicated that the payer is the Ministry of Defense. About 400 clients of this bank received SMS where the wrong payer of the funds was indicated, and tens of thousands of employees who have accounts opened with other banks received regular, correct SMS messages in which the Ministry of Defense was stated as the payer.
The Ministry of Defense is responsible and precise in projecting its budget; there are no outstanding obligations in 2018, and the budget execution was 99.5%. In 2019, the budget is 35 percent higher than last year, with the priority still allocated to further improvement of the standards of our members as well as procurement of modern weapons and infrastructure renovation.
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