Committee on Finance adopts Fiscal Council's 2017 plan – Budget of around RSD 39 million

The Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending of the National Assembly of Serbia approved the draft financial and personnel plan of the Fiscal Council for 2017 on February 14.

Fiscal Council member Vladimir Vuckovic said that the draft budget for that institution for 2017 was around RSD 39 million, the same amount as the previous year.

He emphasized that the projected budget amount was necessary for the basic operations of the Fiscal Council and that most of it would be spent to cover staff costs.

Vuckovic added that, according to the systematization, the Fiscal Council had 17 employees, and that a total of 13 persons were employed in the institution.

– We believe that the number of employees is optimal and that fewer people would mean putting the basic functions of the Fiscal Council in question. This independent institution needs to have adequate departments and it needs to have its place in the budget of Serbia – Vuckovic said.

According to him, compared to other institutions, the Fiscal Council belongs to those smaller in size, both in the number of employees and the amounts of money they need from the state budget.

Vuckovic added that the six-year mandate of the president and the members of the Fiscal Council expired in 2017 and that it was up to the relevant institutions to initiate the process of reassembling the independent institution.

The National Assembly of Serbia appointed Pavle Petrovic the president of the Fiscal Council in March 2011, and Vladimir Vuckovic and Nikola Altiparmakov were appointed members of the institution.

Representatives of the Serbian Radical Party didn't vote for the draft financial and personnel plan of the Fiscal Council for 2017, stating that the institution didn't need to exist, as their earnings, which reach RSD 160-200 thousand, were too high and that their opinions mostly matched those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Fiskalni savet Republike Srbije

National Assembly of Serbia

Committee on Finance

Vladimir Vuckovic

Pavle Petrovic

Nikola Altiparmakov

Fiscal Council budget