Military Union: Defense System Being Run by Dilettante Managers

Novica Antic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

Serbian Military Union leader Novica Antic said on Jan. 20 that the current situation in the defense system was more than concerning and that a "complete reset" of the staff that was running it was necessary.

Antic told BETA that without a doubt the problem was due to the "catastrophically bad and dilettante management" that had been running the system for the past several years.

"Aside from a string of untruthful and incorrect information that was reported by Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic at a news conference on Jan. 19 following an analysis of the Serbian Army's functional and operative capabilities, by announcing that the salaries of members of the Serbian army's Guard would be raised by 10 percent, he has again revealed that he does not know how the complex system that the defense system is functions, which has caused huge dissatisfaction on the part of already displeased professionals and members of other Serbian Army units," Antic said.

Antic stressed that the Army Union welcomed any pay raises for army members, but that it wanted to know how the minister had reached the conclusion that members of the Guard were under more pressure than their colleagues in the Central Logistics Base, electronic warfare units, brigades, the Land Army in the Land Security Zone, security services and separate liaison brigade facilities and air force and anti-aircraft units..."