One of the important indicators of democratization of each society is the constitutional and legal definition of the role of the military and the possibility of its control. The civil and democratic control of the Serbian Armed Forces primarily includes control of the use and development of the Serbian Armed Forces, internal and external control of the expenditures for the military needs, monitoring and informing the public about the state of preparations of the Armed Forces, providing free access to information of public importance and defining responsibilities for performing the military duties in accordance with the law. The instrument for financing the military expenditures in the Republic of Serbia is the state budget. During the drafting of the Law on Budget, the costs for the military needs are planned for the budget year and the following two years. Having in mind that the Law on Budget is passed by the highest legislative body - the National Assembly, the main principle of the democratic control of the military expenditure planning is provided. However, the budget execution implies the control over the use of the budget funds, whereby the Law on Budget System provides for several levels of control, organized as internal and external control. The internal control of the military expenditures, expressed in the budget of the Republic of Serbia, is carried out by the financial service bodies of the units and institutions of the Serbian Armed Forces, the Accounting Centre of the Budget and Finance Sector of the Ministry of Defence, the Defence Inspectorate, the Military Security Agency, the Criminal Investigation Group and the Internal Audit of the Ministry of Defence. The external control of the budget intended for the military needs is performed by the State Audit Institution and the Budget Inspection. The objective of the control is to determine whether the actions of the Serbian Armed Forces are in accordance with the position stipulated by the Constitution, as well as with the policy that the mentioned representative and executive authorities define in their acts.
The financing of the expenditure and spending of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces is defined by the Budget System Law. The amount of allocated funds for defence in all countries is mainly related to gross domestic product. The financing of the defence system directly depends on the economic position and development of state, and also on the available budget. Therefore, the greatest responsibility of those who are authorized is to dispose of budget funds in a certain period of use for the most important state priorities, as well as the need for the highest control over the disposal and use of these funds. The financing of the defence system of the Republic of Serbia, as a direct beneficiary of budget funds, is conducted in compliance with the procedures defined by laws and other normative regulations of the country. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a global security risk and threat, and 2020 has been taken for consideration and analysis of defence expenditure in state budgets. Thus, the readiness of states and defence forces to resist security challenges and threats has been presented. Moreover, fifteen countries that allocated the greatest funds for defence in 2020 have been presented. China is the only country that has positive growth of gross domestic product in the considered year and at the same time the highest percentage of allocations from GDP for defence. The five European countries that allocated the most for defence have also been presented, as well as the ratio of total allocations for defence in Europe and the United States. The average allocation rate for all countries (Table 2) in 2020 is 1.59% of GDP, which is shown in Graph 1. In the considered period, the Republic of Serbia allocated 1.89% of GDP for defence, which is above average. The percentage share of defence expenditure in GDP in recent years is approximately 1.9%. Graph 2 shows the percentage share of defence expenditure in the period from 2013 to 2021. The specificity of financing defence expenditure and spending has been emphasised because the defence system, like other complex systems, is characterized by complexity, openness, dynamism, strict hierarchical structure and two-way relations. Bearing in mind that the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces are a non-profit organization, defence expenditure and spending are almost entirely financed from budget funds. The exception is certain categories of revenues, in a very small percentage in relation to the total available financial resources. In addition to its revenues, other sources of financing, such as various donations, unspent revenues and donations from previous years, income from the sale of non-financial assets and voluntary transfers are represented in financing the expenditure and spending of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces. It is very important to point out that since 2020, as a source of financing defence expenditure and spending, funds from the source - income from internal debt - has been used.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the habits and needs of the world's population, global economy and all countries' economies. Tourism as a service sector of the economy suffered the most significant consequences at the beginning of the pandemic. According to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the tourism sector's contribution to the global economy could reach 8.6 trillion dollars this year, which is only 6.4% less than before the pandemic. Therefore, today's tourist management must be creative, determined and dedicated much more than before. The subject of this research is the accommodation capacities of military tourist institutions and their utilisation in tourism development in the Republic of Serbia. The work aims to examine the utilisation of accommodation capacities of all military tourist institutions, especially during the pandemic, to increase the tourism potential of the Republic of Serbia and, ultimately, the overall development of our country. The research results indicate that a significant number of unused military tourist accommodation capacities could participate in developing Serbia's tourism, but with prior investment in increasing their quality. Another conclusion is that experiences from the pandemic period should be used for further development.
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