The Cuties and The Cops

"The University is about to crumble down and the representatives of the Serbian government and the Ministry of Education keep repeating: 'be patient', 'be understanding', 'the situation is difficult', 'the state makes efforts'... It doesn't become the representatives of the government to interminably repeat such slogans, and it doesn't become the University to listen to them. The OECD's data show that on the average 6% of the gross national product is spent on education in the 29 most developed countries. We are far behind them: the budget of our Ministry of Education should be 50% greater. This government, however, spends less on education, science and culture than on the police and some other ministries. To be precise, according to the data from the Sluzbeni Glasnik, the funds for education have increased by only 30%, for science by only 18% and for culture by only 10%. At the same time, the assets for the police are 41% greater, and the Ministry of Finance will get 283% more compared to the annual financial report for the 1996 budget. Therefore, in the budget for 1997, a greater rate of increase is estimated for the police and some other ministries, and less for education, science and culture. The situation at the University in science and schooling is catastrophic, but not only due to 'the difficult situation'. The crucial question is about how the assets are distributed. In the first quarter of this year the state has collected one third of what it needs: 5.3 billion dinars out of 14,065 billion estimated by this year's budget. The assertion that there are no assets is therefore utter nonsense. It is about the preferences of the government, which we got to know well during the students' protests: one bus with the police cost 2500 dinars daily just for the per diem allowance of the law-enforcement officers, while the monthly salary of a university professor is 1800 dinars. Ladies and gentlemen, the government's representatives at the University Council, it does not do you honor to represent this government."

With this systematically and calmly presented data and bitter observation, Ph.D Milic Milovanovic, a professor at the School of Economy in Belgrade and a member of the Belgrade's University Council, inflected some new tones in the discussion about the financial situation of higher education over the last few months has started to turn into chronic mourning with sporadic crescendo sounds and threats that the institutions of higher education will be forced to stop their work.

During the course of the last session of the Belgrade's University Council, the Minister of Education Ph.D Jovo Todorovic repeated his "firm guarantees" that the much-needed financial infusion is about to happen: the salaries which are in some schools three months behind schedule will allegedly be paid in ten day installments, and by the beginning of the next school year the schools will be paid all of the outstanding debts for maintenance and teaching salaries. Some schools haven't received money for material expenses since the beginning of the 96/97 school year. The debt of the Serbian Ministry is enormous: the state owes 60 million dinars for salaries and 75 million for material expenses to the schools. Is there the money for that? The professor Milovanovic maintains that there is.

"Why doesn't our state consciously renounce some of the tax income? The list of companies that have been freed from paying some contributions by the special government's act is very long, because the directors of those companies are its party's comrades. Tax is not paid on the import of cigarettes because they are imported by their party's comrades. If the state had collected one deutch mark per cigarette box, the money collected that way would be greater than the amount this government sets aside for education."

Professor Milovanovic thinks that there are also other indices that there is money in this country, so he supplemented his discourse by the following examples, which were greeted with applause from the university's part of the Council:

"You gentlemen from the government in the Belgrade's University Council always appeal that we, from the university, should show understanding, that the situation is very difficult... I have recently strolled through Dedinje and judging by the new villas it could be concluded that we are a prosperous country. If the state is 'crumbling down' and the 'situation is very difficult', where do they find the money to build those majestic buildings?! I have read in the prominent English magazine the Economist that our President has bought a yacht and real estate. The budget for the President's office amounts to DM 600,000, which is not only for the President's salary but also for his advisors, employees, secretaries, waiters... According to the Economist, the price of real estate bought abroad by the President is far beyond this sum. I don't know the amount of the President's current salary, but studying the earlier budget I came to the conclusion that it was around DM 1000 per month, and the question still remains - where did the money come from? I must stress that the article from the Economist has not been refuted."

Finally, the question which imposes itself is: couldn't it be that the President is running his own business?

"How can the President of the republic run his own private business? In the democratic societies the presidents are not allowed to conduct businesses of their own. Even if we ignore this fact, it is clear that our tax policy is wrong. If we assume that the President is running some business, that business is not taxed, because according to the existing law the income tax rate is highly progressive and the President would not be left with sufficient money to buy villas abroad," commented Milovanovic.

The Minister for Culture Ph.D Nada Popovic-Perisic, Minister Branislav Ivkovic and the Assistant of the Minister of Finance Djordje Pavlovic polemicized Professor Milovanovic's discussion: they claimed that his data is not accurate, that it is volatile, and Pavlovic even said that he was not competent to discuss the budget. He obviously was not aware that Professor Milovanovic was an economist...

Milovanovic responded to his critics in an interview with the Vreme weekly: "My discussion was based exclusively on official data published in the Sluzbeni Glasnik (no. 16, April 1997 and no. 54, December 1996). The lady minister does not know her ministry's budget, and Minister Ivkovic does not know that pensions are not paid out of the budget?! I have been puzzled before by the fact that the Minister of Finance does not know the amount of the budget, but that no longer amazes me: I have become convinced that the budget is just a purposeless piece of paper, it is just used for public presentation, and the government collects money and distributes it following completely different principles."

In the meantime, last week's "firm guarantees" of the Minister of Education Jovo Todorovic became quite suspicious: the minister did not come to the session of the Scientific and Faculty Council on Monday. Will the Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic turn a deaf ear to the invitation of the representatives of the University in Belgrade to come to the rectorate and talk to the representatives of the schools about the financial situation of the country's oldest institution of high learning, or will he, as ironically noticed by the academician Kurepa, communicate only with the "cute" part of the Belgrade's University Council, i.e., the people delegated to the Council by his government who fulfill the party's tasks very diligently?

While the salaries of the employees of the university are regularly three to four months behind schedule, while most of the schools don't have money to buy chemicals, light bulbs, paper... in the time of the University Council's session in the building of the rectorate in the Kapetan Misa edifice, both the members of the Council and the journalists had close encounters with numerous security people who had special admissions lists, never seen before at the rectorate, to control the entrance granted to the Council's session. According to 'design', but also the characteristic attitude, it was obvious that the special forces were hired for this occasion. A member of Belgrade's University Council, a School of Mathematics professor Zoran Lucic protested against this "security", warning that next time he will not participate in the Council's meeting if he needs to be admitted by the security.

We asked the acting rector Ph.D Dragan Kuburovic who has engaged the security at the rectorate and why, who were the people who controlled the entrance into the rectorate and how much this all costs. Although he is supposed to be the host at the Kapetan Misa edifice, the acting rector of Belgrade's University Ph.D Dragan Kuburovic referred us to the president of Belgrade's University Council, Ph.D Momcilo Babic.

In his statement for the Vreme weekly, Babic said that security has been engaged because during the previous session of the Council "a group of unknown people barged in and interrupted the session". Ph.D Babic probably had in mind the representatives of the Students' Parliament and other students' organizations who wished to present themselves to the Council, but they were not permitted to speak during two sessions. This time they participated in the work of the Council.

"You can't participate in the municipal council meeting if you are not invited, nor in the consumers' council, thus not in the rectorate," said Ph.D Babic. When asked who were the people whom he engaged as security, he said that they were from some private company whose name he did not know exactly.

Unofficially, we heard that the special security units on duty were from the company Komet whose owners are the JUL's activists Zoran Todorovic Kundak and Milivoje Tomasevic.

The question about where the rectorate obtained the money to pay for this impressive security remains unanswered: the president of the Council is not authorized to deal with the finances. It is highly improbable the Ph.D Babic paid the security from his own pocket. Did the money for 'the defense of the rectorate" come from some other side, some new "unprincipled coalition"?