Udovicki: Municipalities need to adopt 2015 budget program

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Kori Udovicki said Wednesday that all municipalities in Serbia needed to adopt their budget programs for 2015, which should clearly define developmental objectives and ensure better allocation of municipal money.

The process will make it possible to adopt an umbrella plan for the development of all parts of Serbia so that the whole country could move forward, Udovicki said at a conference on the program budget and local governments in Serbia.

She announced visiting municipalities across Serbia in August to see how far they are progressing with the job.

Nada Mirkovic, an official at the Ministry of Finance, pointed out that we were dealing with a new way budget planning and the job required cooperation between local and central governemnts.

Zoran Perisic, president of Serbia’s Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, who also serves as mayor of the southern Serbian city of Nis, said that the municipalities had been delivered guidelines for drafting the program budget and the deadline for their adoption would not be extended.

Ramunas Janusauskas of the EU Delegation to Serbia said that the EU supported reforms in Serbia, including the program budgeting process.

He said that the new way of budget planning and the spending of money from the municipal budgets was a major step in the reforms, which should ensure a more transparent and efficient allocation and spending of resources.

Photo Tanjug, O Toskic