20.12.2009.

Minister's press conference: presenting MoD's results for 2009

On Sunday, 20 December, Minister of Defense Dragan Sutanovac gave a press conference where he addressed the reporters on the results of his ministry for theis
year.

The greatest success, according to him, was the opening of a large military base in the south, whereas the 2010 goal will be the completion of professionalization of the Serbian Army (VS).

At a press conference held at the newly adapted Great War Hall of the old SAF HQ, Minister presented the results of his ministry while at the same time giving the basic guidelines for the functioning of MoD in the next year.

At the beginning of the conference, attended by the members of the Minister’s board of personal staff members, said that this year had been marked by the global economic crisis affecting not only the defense system but other segments of the Serbian society as well. He reminded that the military budget was due to the economic crisis made exceptionally restrictive, where it had been additionally reduced by 26 % which resulted in reduced funds for investments and operational costs.

Furthermore, as Sutanovac pointed out, during 2009, the Ministry upon its initiative underwent two fund controls, a budgetary inspection and state auditor’s inspection.

– None of the inspections found anything which would indicate any illegal actions-as the minister underlined.

A lively law-making activity was enforced during last year as two important strategic documents had been adopted-namely, the National Security Strategy and the Defense Strategy along with another 6 laws in the area of defense.

In his words, the systematization and a new formation of posts in the Ministry of Defense had been finalized.

– Ww should have some 36,000 professional soldiers, where 178 of them are civil servants in MoD, where the new formation envisions the reduction from 11500 down to 8.600, which makes 2900 less employees in the so called “management section” of MoD, where one part of this redundant personnel would go to SAF and the other to the Police. This will create necessary conditions for modeling the personnel pyramid after other more developed defense systems.
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This year has also been very successful in terms of the number of prospective candidates for professional soldiers, as Sutanovac said, citing the number of 9500 applicants for 2500 posts where 14 % were women. More than 2100 of them were admitted as professional soldiers. The defense system currently has 6200 professional soldiers, where the recruit contingent had been reduced from 5000 down to 3200. By increasing the number of professional soldiers, th3e number of recruits will decrease.

The military income-generating institutions are at this moment undergoing rationalization of work, where 450 of employees will be made redundant but will undergo a special social program. Such military institutions as Dedinje, Tara, Morava and Karadjordjevo would lose almost 700 million RSD per year.

The global economic crisis, hit us hard which resulted in 26 % less funds for investments, which means less money for solving housing issues of our employees. Despite all of that we managed to solve this vital issue for some 600 MoD employees by assigning them flats or approving their loans. We even launched a pilot project which enables interest-free housing loans for 400 military pensioners.

On of the main tasks of the defense system this year was participation in peace missions under UN auspices with the approval font hr Serbian Parliament. There are 34 MoD and SAF members currently stationed in peace missions in Chad, Congo, Cote d Ivoire, and Liberia, which is a rather modest number yet, which opens new prospects for us. We are more than convinced that next year would be even more significant in this respect, as we are currently analyzing the possibility of sending our troops to Lebanon as part of the Spanish and Italian contingents.

The biggest success was certainly the completion of Jug military base, also known as Cepotina, as it was constructed for over a year. It is yet to be fully adapted but it is already functional. The base will be equipped even better in the forthcoming period. The Batajnica air field also saw and underwent complete reconstruction in 2009 despite reduction in the budget, along with the SAF Central Dome, 103 various military building and some 8000 square meters of storage facilities.

A great leap forward was made in the field of reforming military education-study programs had been accredited in the Military academy and the Military Medical Academy, as this year the first generation of medical students where enrolled in MMA. There is an ever increasing interest for attending military schools, where the Military Academy had 1050 applicants, and 900 candidates applied for the Military Grammar School. Currently there are 74 members of foreign armies at the graduate studies in our military schools, where we sent 192 of our men for specialist studies abroad.

Minister also took this opportunity to once again stress the importance of international military cooperation among other results of MoD, as we have paid 18 ministerial visits abroad, where 8 ministers came to Serbia. We should also bear in mind the visit of the US Vice President Byden, as the first visit of such a high-ranking US official in Serbia’s history.

Military healthcare system has made serious advancements this yea, not only when it comes to MMA, but also when it comes to raising the quality of medical services to a higher level. We bought 20 new medical vehicles, which makes a total of 37 vehicles with 17 vehicles procured last year, and this is a modern contingent of equipment for medical healthcare system. Signing an agreement with the Republic Institute for Medical Insurance, as minister reminded the press, the civilians were enabled to use the services of military hospitals in Novi Sad and Nis.

Such military exercises as “Resolute response”, “Diplomac” and “Sretenje” should also be singled out as very successful activities of SAF, where MEDCEUR an international military medical exercises was one of the most important, as it gathered the members of 15 armies with 800 participants.

This year we managed to organize the largest air show ever to be held in Serbia with 14 participating countries. We also helped the organization of the University Olympics “Universiade 2009” while also supporting the organization of “Partner 2009” international arms and military equipment fair.
As for the CIMIC part of activities, civil-military cooperation, it was a very successful one, as the construction of bridges near Despotovac and in Sjenica bespeak of, as well as the construction of roads in Kursumlija and Sjenica, along with the rehabilitation of other infrastructural objects all over Serbia.

2009 passed without any scandals involving MoD and SAF which is another main reason why SAF are so popular with the people of Serbia as it has been positioned as the second most trusted institution after the Serbian Orthodox Church, SAF are the least corrupted institution in Serbia according to the recent study .
The professionalization would be the most important goal for the next year as the Minister said.

– It is our wish to bring to an end and to complete the plan drafted in 2003 in line with our financial capabilities. I am certain we can achieve this, said Sutanovac adding that certain admission procedures were additionally slowing down the whole professionalization process, which is only necessary as the main goal is not to allow anyone who does not deserve this or does meet the necessary criteria to enter the defense system.,

In order to enjoy full enactment of 6 laws adopted by the Assembly, we must adopt another 180 bylaws which would be a significant task for 2010. This process would round up the whole reform of the defense system.

We also plan to reform the military educational system next year as well, that is, we hope to found the Military University, as well as to introduce a new model of NCO training as they would be selected and trained form the ranks of professional soldiers.

–Our plans envision the reconstruction of Ladjevci air base, as this is one of the great civil-military projects, since we hope to place this civil-military airfield into civil use as soon as possible, as we are convinced that it would support the development of the whole region.