Blagojevic: Disbursement of funds for reconstruction soon

BELGRADE – The Office for assistance and rehabilitation of flooded areas will be able to begin disbursing funds for the construction and rehabilitation of houses damaged in the May flooding in about ten days from now, Marko Blagojevic, director of the Office, has said.

After the adoption of a program for reconstruction of houses and residential buildings damaged and destroyed by the floods at a government meeting on Thursday, Blagojevic told Tanjug that the procedure provided for local governments to pass decisions on the allocation of state aid to citizens, give an eight-day deadline for appeal, and begin payments after that.
“Local governments can begin to issue decisions immediately. After a period of eight days for appeal, we can start making the payments,” he said.

Blagojevic said that the government stood behind its promise that all houses that had been torn down, or predicted for knocking down after the flooding, would be restored by the winter.

More than RSD 3.6 billion will be earmarked for rehabilitation and construction of new houses, where RSD 2.5 billion will go for the rehabilitation of houses, and estimates show that there are about 10,000 housing facilities to deal with, and RSD 875 million for the reconstruction of destroyed houses, he said.

The Office will build 350 houses in cooperation with donors from the EU, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, the Blic Foundation and the Association of businessmen in Stara Pazova, he said.

An agreement on using IPA funds will be signed in Obrenovac, Belgrade’s municipality hit the hardest by the floods, on Friday, following which a call for tenders for the construction of 129 houses should be issued, and we can expect the construction works to...