The level of budget spending irregularities in ministries is disturbingly high, said State Audit Institution (DRI) President Radoslav Sretenović.
He says that the 2009 budget audit revealed that five ministries violated the Public Procurement Law in a total amount of RSD 298mn.
A Belgrade court has acquitted Trade Minister Slobodan Milosavljević in the procedure initiated by the State Audit Institution (DRI). This was announced on Monday by Acting President of the Belgrade Misdemeanor Court Milan Marinović.
The State Audit Institution (DRI) started work on the 2009 budget spending, Belgrade daily VeÄernje Novosti reports today. The checks started at the ministries of agriculture, infrastructure, and youth and sports.
The ruling coalition rejected the oppositions demand to put the report of the State Audit Institution (DRI) on budget spending on the parliamentary agenda. Ruling coalition MPs say support a parliamentary discussion of the historic first budget audit report, but three months after it arrived in parliament, have yet to put it on the agenda.
The State Audit Institution (DRI) announced on Thursday that it initiated misdemeanor procedures against 19 officials. They include six current and five former ministers in the Serbian government.
According to daily VeÄernje novosti, the State Audit Institution (DRI) has prepared charges against six ministers for spending violations. The daily states that 20 reports have been written and handed over to the prosecution against at least six ministers, several state secretaries and a director of a state-owned company for violations in budget spending.
State Auditor Radoslav Sretenović said that complaints against those who used budget funds irregularly will be submitted after January 1. The President of the State Audit Institution (DRI) told B92 that a final analysis has not been completed by the ministries for budget spending in 2008, adding that if no complaints are filed in the next four days for misuses, they will be submitted early next year.
Parliamentary Speaker Slavica Äukić-Dejanović told B92 that parliament would debate the report of the State Audit Institution (DRI) in March of next year. She said that the opposition’s initiative for the debate could reach the parliamentary agenda on March 1, because the proposal was not submitted under emergency procedures.
President Boris Tadić today commented on the report of the State Audit Institution (DRI) for 2008. It showed that there was “excessive spending in the fields which are completely unnecessary†he said, and added that ministers must possess the quality of “financial and civil discipline”.
