08.02.2015.

Announcement of surplus arms and military equipment

Addressing the great interest for advertisement of arms and military equipment, we stress that these are the means that are not necessary for normal functioning of the defence system. These are surplus arms and military equipment that are not necessary for normal functioning of the defence system. The means advertised as surplus are dated, with expired resources and usage date, and this venture will certainly not lead to weakening of the defence power of the Republic of Serbia. The Armed Forces of Serbia possess a sufficient number of more modern means of the same class and purpose. In the past few months, upon the suggestion of the Minister of Defence and the request of the Armed Forces of Serbia, certain arms and military equipment were drawn from sales that had been proclaimed surplus, primarily the engineering means that can be used to help local residents in the course of the third mission of the Armed Forces of Serbia, and some arms needed for exercises.

It is important to stress that all charged revenue from future sales of surplus arms and military equipment will be paid to the Budgetary Fund for arms that is currently being formed at the Ministry of Defence in adherence to the law. Unlike before, means from this fund will be exclusively used for research, development and acquisition of new arms for the needs of the Armed Forces of Serbia.

This is a pre-announcement of selling surplus arms and military equipment. To clarify, we have not declared the precise time for submitting offers.

This act is aimed at achieving maximum transparency in the process of sales, that is, giving enough time for interested companies to find buyers. Namely, requests for proposal can be submitted by companies registered for foreign trade traffic of controlled goods, of which there are over 150, and companies registered for production of arms and military equipment, of which there are currently 51.

We stress that the advertisement and sales of surplus arms and military equipment will be fully transparent and lawful. Our goal is to prevent possible oversights and malversations in all phases of the process of sales, including public outbidding of interested companies by the auction model, which results in sales prices on average three to four times higher than the initial.

We point out that the previous sales model was far more nontransparent and led to sales prices that were slightly increased, with unlawful acts that led to arrest of certain persons.