State Audit Institution to get 155m RSD from 2010 budget

The Finance Board of the Parliament of Serbia adopted the financial plan of the State Audit Institution (DRI) for year 2010 on September 17, 2009, which anticipates allotment of 155m RSD from the budget for its operations.

The President of DRI, Radoslav Sretenović, explained that the budget for year 2010 would be 20m RSD larger than the budget for year 2009, and he said that that money would be used for payment of salaries to the auditors who would be employed by the end of year 2009 and the next year.

DRI currently has 22 employees, and it should employ 40 auditors by the end of year and 18 more in 2010.

According to some earlier plan, DRI was supposed to have 129 employees by the end of year 2010, but, as Sretenović explained, there are not enough people interested in that business.

- Some of the auditors we hired have resigned because the salary is small - he pointed out and added that monthly incomes of supreme state auditors amounted to about 60,000 RSD, while the salaries in private audit companies were several times bigger.

Sretenović announced that DRI would move from one of the halls of the Home of the National Parliament to the new leased premises at the end of the next week.

According to the report on the work of the budget inspection for year 2008, which was taken in consideration at today's meeting of the Finance Board, that agency has no conditions for efficient work and nine budget inspectors resigned in 2008 and 2009 because the salaries were "extremely small".