We will put stop to embezzlement of state funds in Kosovo

We will put stop to embezzlement of state funds in Kosovo

BELGRADE -- ''The Government will put a stop to all embezzlements of state funds in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM)'', the Minister of Labour and Social Policy Aleksandar Vulin said.

"The police has conducted an investigation while I was serving as the director of the Serbian Government's Office for Kosovo. We forwarded all the documents that were requested and I did not have anything more with the case...

Certainly there were embezzlements in Kosovo, but this should not be a reason to cut aid to Serbs in KiM... The help should, however, be distributed more precisely and in amore fair manner", Vulin stated for the Belgrade daily Blic.

An additional problem is in the law itself, he said.

"There are beneficiaries of social assistance, who at the same time have real estate and business, and everyone knows that, for example, in Kosovska Mitrovica. But to stop this practice, it is necessary to amend the Law on Social Welfare, and we will do that," Vulin said.

When asked about the investigation into the disability pensions which shed light on the controversial case of Ljubisa Buha, a protected witness in the trial of the Zemun gang and social welfare beneficiary as of 1994, Vulin said that Buha did not respond to the committee's first invitation and if he fails to appear for the second time he will automatically lose disability benefits.

"I doubt that his standard of living would suffer without those RSD 23,000, but it is unusual that a man receiving a disability pension is that rich," Vulin said.

We will investigate how he got the disability assistance funds, since so far Ljubisa Buha received from the state EUR 40,000-50,000. This...