The city administration of Novi Pazar confirmed last night that the local government had not received nearly 150 million dinars in taxes and transfer funds from the republican budget, which is why salaries have not been paid to employees.
"We have contacted the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, the Treasury Administration and the Tax Administration due to the delay, but we have not received any response," said the head of the administration, Džemil Divanefendić, in a statement sent to the media last night.
He emphasized that, immediately after the budget inspection of the Serbian Ministry of Finance in the City Administration and public enterprises during an extraordinary inspection did not find any irregularities, an inspection of the Ministry of Finance came to Novi Pazar unannounced.
"We have discussed this unprecedented situation with representatives of other cities and municipalities, and we have not heard of any other local government having this problem," said the head of the city administration.
The denial of funds to Novi Pazar followed statements by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić that "there is no more money for the State University and local self-government."
"Because they don't know how to manage the municipality, because they don't know how to manage all the other things and they are running huge deficits," Vučić said at the end of July.
The city of Novi Pazar has still not received the installment of non-purpose transfers from the republican budget for August, which is why the functioning of local self-government is at risk, local radio "Sto Plus" announced the day before yesterday, citing unofficial information.
This installment is usually paid on the 20th of each month, but according to unofficial information, it was not paid in Novi Pazar even after five days.
Because of this, employees in local government, as well as public institutions that are direct beneficiaries of the budget, such as the "Mladost" preschool, have not been paid their salaries.
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