‘This year, the 500 million dinars collected on the basis of non-prosecution agreements (‘opportunity funds’) will be used to fund 130 projects of public importance,’ State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice Radomir Ilić has stated at the Gerontology Centre in Kruševac where he attended the presentation of a wining project from the last year’s round of public calls. Also present at the presentation of the said project were the Mayor of Kruševac Jasmina Palurović and Director of the Gerontology Centre Jelena Mijailović. ‘It only once you step into a facility such as this that you realise the great importance of the opportunity funds and how much can be achieved with them’, Mr Ilić stated, inviting all with projects of public importance to participate in the next public call. He explained that to date, the Ministry of Justice had conducted a total of five public calls which had resulted in the allocation of over 2 billion dinars to projects of public importance.
Mr Ilić noted that, once more, the largest portion of the year’s funds had been allocated to health-care projects – 236,891,692 dinars, which is nearly half of the total funds. Education projects have been awarded 162,775,139 dinars, projects dealing with social protection issues 41,395,651 dinars, culture projects 31,431,776 dinars, and projects in all other areas 27,505,742 dinars.
Mr Ilić announced that the Ministry of Justice would initiate two large projects in Kruševac – the construction of a new building for the judicial organs, i.e. a building that would house the entire judicature of Kruševac, and the construction of a new prison. The first, which would be 9,000 square metres − he explained − should be completed in 2022.
The Mayor of Kruševac thanked the Ministry of Justice for its cooperation in implementing several of very important projects in the field of health and education, noting that in 2020, too, opportunity funds would support several projects stemming from the territory of the Kruševac Municipality, valued at approximately 4 million dinars.
Director of the Gerontology Centre said that the Centre had been awarded opportunity funds for its projects on two occasions. She emphasised that in 2019, 2.7 million dinars had been spent on the furnishing and the equipping of the physical therapy room, which had brought immense value to its users in that their care and treatment had been improved greatly.