City of Belgrade Budget to Be Supervised by IMF

BETAPHOTO/Milos Miskov

The Serbian government has had to promise the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that external auditors would be hired to review the capital’s budget due to frequent accusation of mismanagement and suspicion that the city’s finances are in trouble, Nikola Jovanovic, the director of the non-governmental Center for Local for Self-Government, announced on Jan. 15.

The external audit of Belgrade’s budget must be completed by August and its findings confirmed by the IMF, explained Jovanovic, a lawyer and former alderman. He added that the review would include the operation of public utility companies and the subsidies they receive from the City.

The current situation with Belgrade’s finances is such that there are nearly no funds left for capital investments, while its utility companies continue to accumulate unpaid dues and the City itself has rising debt to banks.

The City of Belgrade budget is RSD205 billion (EUR1.75 billion), which amounts to nearly nine percent of the state budget.

The IMF is insisting that the external consultants perform an analysis of Belgrade’s finances along with a budget projection for the next three years, meant to show the medium-term sustainability of the capital’s management of funds. The auditors are also to scrutinize the relations between the City’s utility enterprises and assess the sustainability of their operation.