State financial support to cooperatives in Serbia

Abstract

Co-operatives in the most developed European countries have a tradition of over 150 years, and among first cooperatives founded in the middle of the 19th century were those on the territory of today's Serbia. Until the beginning of the Second World War, Serbia had a developed and successful cooperative system. In the post-war period, there was a degradation of co-operative system and its departure from the basic cooperative values and principles. The transition period during the 1990s brought new problems through privatization and the creation of unresolved cooperative property. The first visible progress in the development of modern Serbian co-operatives was achieved in 2017 through the introduction of state support to existing and new cooperatives in the amount of 200 million dinars. The initial results indicated that this relatively modest financial state support resulted in establishment of significant number of new cooperatives. Accordingly, more than 800 million dinars were allocated from the budget in 2018 to support the development of co-operatives. Significantly increased state support imposes the issue of budget control and preventing potential misuse, such as the establishment of 'false' co-operatives solely for the purpose of receiving financial support. Possible embezzlement could cause in the future the suspension of state support to cooperatives, which can be prevented primarily through the improvement of the cooperative audit system.

Zadrugarstvo u danas najrazvijenijim evropskim državama ima tradiciju od preko 150 godina, a među prvim zadrugama koje su osnivane sredinom 19. veka bile su i one na teritoriji današnje Srbije. Do početka Drugog svetskog rata, Srbija je imala razvijen i uspešan zadružni sistem. U periodu nakon rata, došlo je do degradacije zadrugarstva i njegovog udaljavanja od osnovnih zadružnih vrednosti i principa. Period tranzicije tokom 1990-ih doneo je nove probleme kroz privatizaciju i stvaranje nerešenog pitanja zadružne imovine. Prvi vidljiv pomak u razvoju savremenog srpskog zadrugarstva ostvaren je tokom 2017. godine kroz uvođenje državne podrške postojećim i novim zadrugama u iznosu od oko 200 miliona dinara. Početni rezultati ukazuju na to da je ova relativno skromna finansijska pomoć države rezultirala osnivanjem značajnog broja novih zadruga. U skladu sa tim, za podršku razvoja zadrugarstva u 2018. godini iz budžeta je dodeljeno preko 800 miliona dinara. Značajno uvećana državna podrška nameće pitanje kontrole trošenja sredstava i sprečavanja potencijalnih zloupotreba, kao što je osnivanje 'lažnih' zadruga isključivo u cilju dobijanja novčanih sredstava. Eventualne pronevere ili nenamensko trošenje mogli bi u budućnosti uzrokovati obustavljanje državne podrške zadrugarstvu, što se može sprečiti, pre svega, kroz unapređenje sistema zadružne revizije.