The Military Security Agency (VBA) requested the Legal Administration of the Ministry of Defense not to publish decrees on promotions, appointments, retirements and termination of professional military service in electronic form in the Official Military Gazette in the future on the Ministry's website. This was accepted at the meeting on June 8, according to a document that "Vreme" had access to, and which does not bear any mark of secrecy, but is referred to as "Information on the delivery of the Official Military Gazette". Therefore, from June 15, when the document was officially filed in the Legal Administration, the Official Military Gazette publishes only changes to regulations on the website, without decrees.
The publication of the Official Military Gazette on the website of the Ministry of Defense is regulated by the Law on Publication of Laws and Other Acts. As stated in the minutes, at the meeting of June 8, it was emphasized that the Official Military Gazette traditionally publishes decrees and orders on the service of professional military personnel with their names, parents' names, surname and rank. However, the representative of the VBA expressed the view that the orders on service management should not be published in electronic form in the Official Military Gazette, except for decrees issued by the President of Serbia, "since the same can be a problem, primarily from the point of view of personnel monitoring, but also jeopardizing the functional and operational capability of the Serbian Army". In what way, it is not explained in that "information".
The website of the Ministry of Defense shows that the Official Military Gazette has been published in electronic form since the beginning of 2006, and so far there have been no objections from the VBA, even in previous years since it was headed by Vučić's former adjutant Đuro Jovanić. Miloš Vučević has been at the head of the Ministry of Defense since the autumn of last year, so even then it was not requested. That is why the question arises - "why now".
At the aforementioned meeting, it was concluded that the electronic form of the Official Military List published on the Ministry's website "will not be burdened with orders on the status of service and promotions of professional military personnel, nor regulations and other acts from which the elements of formation positions of professional members of the Serbian Armed Forces can be established. According to the above, Sl. The military document, which contains orders on the status of service and promotions of professional military personnel, as well as regulations on the elements of formation positions of professional members of the Serbian Armed Forces, will be marked with the level of secrecy INTERNAL (I-) and will be distributed to the organizational units of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces exclusively for official needs of those units and institutions, while Sl. the military certificate containing the regulations should be delivered in the manner established so far", was the conclusion of the meeting.
Decrees on the appointment, appointment and retirement of generals are under the jurisdiction of the President of Serbia, which will continue to be published in electronic format. However, all other decisions made by the Minister of Defense, Chief of the General Staff, branch commanders or the administration of the Serbian Armed Forces become a secret for the public.
The last issue of the Official Military Gazette in which the orders on appointment or retirement were published was in issue 20 of May 31. Since then, only regulations such as the price of renting equipment from the Military Museum or the price of admission to this institution are published.
As an experienced officer still in active service told "Vreme", the reason is paranoia because not only professional soldiers are leaving the army (which the Military Union of Serbia, as the only representative one, has repeatedly warned about) but also officers, especially technical professions.
"When you look at the orders on the termination of professional military service that are published in the Official Military Gazette, you see that there are a lot of those that refer to lieutenants, captains and majors in the fields of communications, telecommunications, and IT," explains this interlocutor. "People leave, they find better jobs in foreign companies that work in Serbia. And money is not the only reason, there are many things that force them to do it, and if they are already getting money, why would they not provide a better life for the family."
As a reason for "censorship" in the Official Military Gazette, the interlocutor also sees the fact that the outflow of professional officers of all genders and types is being replaced by the admission of civilian reservists who graduated from college and served military service at the Reserve Officers' School (ŠRO). Namely, this is also a type of "party penetration" into the army, as has already happened with the Security Information Agency. Once SKJ, now SNS, he concludes.
And by reading the Official Military Gazette, you can find out anything. For example, to accept civilian reserve officers in the VBA, in addition to so many military personnel. A similar case is with the Military Intelligence Agency, where "cadres" who have served three months of military service were admitted.
With the reform from the time when the Minister of Defense was Dragan Šutanovac, the Military Academy was practically turned into a civilian faculty. There they study "according to Bologna" and train managers, and the term "protégé" has been replaced by "cadet". Instead of the former majors, nine study programs were introduced: Defense Management, Air Defense, Military Mechanical Engineering, Military Electronic Engineering, Military Chemical Engineering, Military Surveying Engineering, ABH Defense, Public Finance and Defense Logistics. Otherwise, the classic army is subsumed under the Defense Management study program, which has seven so-called modules.
It's a complicated division, but that's how it is when officer-managers are trained. It is good for them because when they "serve" eight years in the army, they have civilian occupations, especially those with professions that are in demand in the West, but the question is how the Army itself fares. The answer lies in how many officers leave before the end of eight years - it is easier to take out a loan and pay back the debt and go to the West than to survive in the Army.
The new model applied by Western companies is to immediately give those officers the money needed to "repay" the state for their education costs, which comes down to food during the four years of education, the salary they received, ammunition used, and the like. Then it is not surprising that the experts are leaving.
