Improving the ways of the University of Defense funding from the standpoint of strategic management

Abstract

Organizationally, the University of Defense in Belgrade belongs to the defense system, and primarily educate personnel required by the system. This specificity, as compared to other universities, derives also a significant fact that this university operates almost entirely with state-owned assets. For its successful operation, it is necessary to ensure the regularity and timeliness of its funding as a budget beneficiary. The aim of this paper’s research is to prove that the funding of the University and its operations would significantly improve if it was awarded the status of a direct budget beneficiary. This view of the authors is based on the perception of the interconnectedness of the phases of the current process of funding: planning of funds; approving of expenditure plans; adoption and implementation of procurement plans; and spending of approved funds. They estimate that this procedure is timeconsuming, delayed, and therefore inadequate from the standpoint of the University’s requirements, which are subject to faster changes. In preparing the solutions to the matter of the research, the authors studied foreign experiences regarding the status of military educational institutions – defense universities of the USA, the Republic of Romania, and the Czech Republic. Also, they present the status of special state administration bodies within the Ministry of Defense – the Defense Inspectorate, the Military Intelligence Agency, and the Military Security Agency. The study of the position of these state administration bodies enabled the establishment of the view that the University of Defense of the Republic of Serbia need also to be awarded such a status. Nevertheless, prior to making the final proposal, an empirical research is also conducted through a test method and surveying techniques. In the conclusion, the paper presents the results that confirm the base hypothesis of the need to award the University of Defense the status of a direct budget beneficiary. This would allow the improvement of the approved budget planning and execution, more expedient use of their own revenues, as well as other benefits in terms of financial operations of the University. The authors believe that this would ensure considerable savings in budgetary funds spending, as well as greater possibilities of their strategic management.