05.01.2019.
Minister Vulin: the Ministry of Defence is financially the most disciplined ministries in the Government
- There is no holiday for the Armed Forces of Serbia. The temperature is minus 10 degrees today, and the members of the Serbian Armed Forces are in the Ground Safety Zone and they conduct patrols on very inaccessible terrain, they protect our security and our everyday peace – Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin sent a message in his appearance in the morning show on the RTS.
Speaking about the living standard of the members of the Serbian Armed Forces, he said that the pays of the members, following a nine per cent increase of the 1st January, were higher than ever in both their absolute and relative amounts, expressed in both dinars and euros.
- The military has never had such high salaries. These are the salaries that are higher than they were prior to the reduction. Naturally, it is not enough, and one should always do more. This is good news for the soldiers, just like it is good news that we will continue our work on bettering the financial status of all the members. The Supreme commander President Vučić insists that care should be taken primarily of the military, police, security structures and everyone has understood that – the Ministry of Finance, the Government of the Republic of Serbia. If there had not been for his support, we would not get such a high increase – Vulin said and added that the members of the Serbian Armed Forces received a nine per cent increase in that year and 10 per cent increase in the previous year.
Commenting on the statements of the Military Union of Serbia regarding poor condition in the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces, the minister of defence pointed out that the situation was clear “when someone has nothing to object to, he stars lying”.
- The Ministry of Defence is one of financially most disciplined ministries in the Government, and our execution is higher than 99.5 per cent. Hence, we have planned everything to “a single dinar”, every salary is paid, and the New Year gifts and solidary assistance. The only problem that we have is that this year we paid three billion dinars of compensations in reservist’s lawsuits for discrimination because of a decision Dragan Šutanovac made in 2008, to pay double salaries to reservists in Toplica in order to mitigate a strike, some protest, for the purpose of winning elections, while other reservists did not receive the double pay. Because of that, so far, we have paid five billion dinars of compensations. That is the only problem that we have, and the Ministry of Defence can truly say with satisfaction that the better days for the military have already come and that there are going to be even better days. The investments will be made in the military through weapons, through equipment and through salaries – the minister of defence emphasised.
