“Our actual budget should expand by 2.2 million euros, with nearly all of the sum going towards investment projects we don’t elaborate on. We had stated a bigger need from our side,” Aurelija Katkuviene, the chief of the State Security Department’s Strategic Communication Division, told BNS on Wednesday.
Under the 2018 budget draft, the State Security Department should receive 38.219 million euros, up from 26.087 million euros this year.
Some 9.885 million euros, the biggest share of the additional money projected for the department, will go towards construction of the VSD building in Vilnius that has lasted for years. Therefore, in Katkuviene’s words, the money will not be used in the department’s operations.
However, the department will receive an additional 700,000 euros for 25 new positions, with a total of 13.7 million euros envisaged for salaries of intelligence officers and other staff.
The new VSD complex was inaugurated earlier this year. The total value of the facilities is 80.5 million euros, including just over 53 million euros invested before the start of 2017.
Be the first to comment