The event, which gathered citizens in front of the municipality building in New Belgrade on July 7th, was organised by BIRN Serbia and its partner organisation Pro Concept as part of the “Skockajte Budzet” campaign.
Citizens were constructing the budget of 656 billion dinars, which is the total ammount of the state budget for 2010, by placing money in 25 boxes (symbolizing the number of ministries).
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The Ministry of Economy and Regional Development is followed by Ministry of Health which got 8.7 per cent and Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning – 8.2 per cent whereas the lowest amount from the state coffer has been given to the Minister without Portfolio, Ministry for Diaspora and the country’s Foreign Ministry.
Milos Petrovic, vice president of New Belgrade municipality said that the goal of this action was to see the citizens’ preferences in terms of making the state budget.
“I am glad that the New Belgrade municipality is the first to join this action as this promotes the active participation of citizens in the process of forming the budget,” Petrovic said.
Such street events will be held in other municipalities in the country in the forthcoming months.
“Skockajte budzet” campaign is part of the larger project “Eye on Public Finances” which was launched in late 2009 by BIRN Serbia and Pro Concept. The aim of the programme is to broaden the understanding and discussion on budget issues among MPs, NA staff, media representatives and CSO’s, as well as to increase the public demand for transparency and accountability.