Free-spending by officials angers the Yugoslavs

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 33

Free-spending by officials angers the Yugoslavs

NZPA Belgrade Yugoslavia's economic crisis is focusing attention on the amount of public money frittered away by free-spend-ing officials whose abuses are provoking an angry reaction. Committees of the Federal Parliament were reported to have discussed with unusual anger abuses by officials entitled to apartments in Belgrade and official cars to ferry them round. They insisted that no longer would official cars be available to take officials home from parties where it was possible they might drink too much. But more importantly, the committees proposed new rules on who was entitled to apartments, a sensitive issue in Belgrade where housing is chronically short. The committees also want new rules on how long people can have the use of flats and what happens to the housing afterwards. Federal officials, a term which includes politicians as well as bureaucrats, are entitled to Government apartments on the grounds that the}’ have come to the capital from the republics or provinces. The committees revealed that officials frequently found a way to leave apartments to relatives after the expiry of their term of office. In effect, the Government was giving away free apartments. This type of abuse was “very widespread” according to one committee that expressed deep dissatisfaction that -the Government had not answered its questions about what, after all, were “well known facts.” The committee particularly wanted to know how Federal funds for housing officials had been used, what abuses had been exposed, and what investigations were being pursued. Yugoslavs have grumbled for years about the bending of rules by officials, but the mutterings rarely become public. . One exception was last

spring when corrupt officialdom was the first target of students who sparked rioting by Albanian nationalists in the southern province of Kosovo. The students accused officials of using their positions and public money to build week-end cottages on the coast and buy apartments in Belgrade as well as fancy houses in Pristina, the capital of Yugoslavia’s poorest province. But until now, very little has ever been done about the abuses. The highly-respected magazine, “NIN,” devoted part of its latest issue to a lengthy analysis of why the problem should exist. Its answer was partly that it was a question of being Balkan, and therefore having no tradition of democracy or accountability, and partly because rapid economic expansion as well as decentralisation over the last 20 years had given immense opportunities for “parasitism.” Some Western diplomats here translate that phrasing into the view that such a large proportion of the population has the chance to participate in the free spending of public money that abuses have not previously become a serious political problem. As other newspapers have made clear, it is not only the politicians and the bureaucrats who are eager to spend from the public coffers. They have been asking recently why Yugoslavia plays host to more international conferences, seminars, and workshops than any other country, all underwritten by the public purse. According to published figures, Yugoslavia organised 297 of the 1028 such meetings held around the world so far this year. Belgrade apparently led the way by playing host to 145 international meetings, well ahead of Zagreb’s 38 and the 30 held in the beautiful Adriatic city of Dubrovnik. By contrast, Paris had only 39 such events and

London 31, according to the Yugoslav data. Thousands of Yugoslavs attend these meetings, their expenses paid by the Government or by places of work. They are also just as keen, if not keener, to attend meetings abroad, the newspapers say. They have been asking why such a high proportion of delegates to congresses abroad have been. Yugoslavs and what it is costing the country. No answers have been forthcoming so far, but newspapers reported they had discovered that at a recent competition for typists in West Germany, almost half the participants were Yugoslav. That, they implied, was too much. They also single out industry as being particularly guilty of irresponsible spending, especially of foreign ex-

change which is in short supply. As an example, they quote last month’s Leipzig Autumn Fair where 65 Yugoslav firms were represented by 1200 people, each paying nearly $4OO in air fares and collecting $4O a day in allowances for more than a week. Their hotel rooms had to be paid for and they spent money on entertaining potential clients. No final bill was available but it was estimated at millions of dollars, in return for only $l5 million of orders. The price, several newspapers concluded, was too high. What had happened was the invention of the “tourist businessman,” paid by his firm to take a holiday. Not the sort of thing that should be happening in a Communist country, one newspaper declared.