10.02.2011.

Ministers Sutanovac and Dulic visit the construction site on Vozdovac

Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac, Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic and the director of the Building Directorate of Serbia Dragan Grujic visited today the site of the barracks area in Voždovac “Stepa Stepanovi? "where the building of the first 1,450 of about 5,000 planned apartments has begun.

Sutanovac said that an agreement between Ministry of Defence and the Building Directorate of Serbia Serbian Army will get 21% of the area. He said that the army will not take over all the flats on the site of the former barracks, but will in part exchange the property for apartments throughout Serbia for the members of the army.

The Minister said that the agreement is already being implemented and 156 apartments are currently being taken over. Furthermore, there is an ongoing transfer of the apartments in Paracin, Cacak, Valjevo, Nis and elsewhere, according to the minister, while the apartments in Vranje are already owned by the Army.

Sutanovac explained that the apartments are exchanged based on market value and that in return for 21 % of apartments in Vozdovac, the Army will get a much larger area in other locations. According to him, the number of apartments that will take over the Serbian Army in Vozdovac has been set and will take a decision on how authorities.

Minister Dulic said that the financial construction for four lots had been made, while the other three should get finances from their own funds and loans taken with the AIK and Commercial Banks.

The building season, as Dulic said, will certainly be much better than previous ones, so in cooperation with the city of Belgrade, as part of the state subsidies, the construction of 1,100 apartments in the settlement of Dr Ivan Ribar in New Belgrade will start this summer. The whole of Serbia, he said, will soon see the start of the implementation of about 240 projects planned within as a way to help the construction industry in the times of economic crisis, and will be used for building hospitals, schools and other buildings.

Director of the Building Directorate of Serbia Dragan Grujic said that the completion of the first apartments is expected in the spring 2012 while the last object should be completed in the fall of that year.

He said that so far include about 40 companies have been involved, and given that only half of the contracted work, it is expected that for the project in Vozdovac almost the entire building industry in the country will be involved. The Director of Construction Directorate said that despite the economic crisis, there is great interest in purchasing the flats on the site and it is already possible to take loan.

In his answer regarding the expectations before the arrival of the Auditor General in the Ministry of Defence, Sutanovac said that the auditor is expected to arrive on 14 February in a visit that will take several weeks or months and will wait for the report. He said that the auditors and the Inspection were in MoD last year and that the Ministry has just established its own internal audit and control which carries out the task of auditing. Sutanovac recalls that the Defense Ministry, when it comes to finances is the largest sector and there is a statistical probability that a mistake can occur, but if that should be so no one will run away from the responsibility, but will be accepted and rectified.