Serbian Gov’t Reroutes EUR94 Million to Cover Undisclosed Expenses

Serbian Government (BETAPHOTO/NENAD PETROVIC/)

The Serbian government has decided to reroute RSD11 billion, or roughly EUR94 million, from numerous state projects to cover expenses that were "unknown" when adopting the budget, the Nova Ekonomija publication reported on May 28.

The decision was made one day after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic pledged to increase pensions and wages, but whether the two are related is not known as the government decision contains no rationale. According to the published decision, RSD11,014,673 will be rerouted to the Ministry of Finance, that is, into the budget reserve, to "finance expenditures and expenses that were unknown during the process of adopting the Law on the 2025 budget of the Republic of Serbia."

The decision does not state what these funds are to be spent on and the Ministry did not answer by the time the article was published. Marko Milanovic, a special advisor at the Fiscal Council, said the Council had drawn attention to problems with the use of the current budget reserve in Serbia multiple times, and that they included the unjustified use of this mechanism to finance standard policies and relatively low transparency in providing concrete reasons and criteria for the disbursement of the funds.

"These are not new problems. It has all been present for a long time, and we have drawn attention to the need to limit the use of the reserve and to step up oversight and transparency when reporting on its use," Milanovic told Nova Ekonomija.