President Stjepan Mesic has reduced his team of advisors, which now consists of eight advisors, with three special advisors who do pro bono work. In 1999, former President Franjo Tudjman had 20 advisors.
"President Mesic's team no longer includes the guardian of the state seal and the advisor on ethics and morality; it includes one aide de camp instead of the previous three, and it no longer includes the chief of the internal medical station with the status of a state official," reads the statement.
Payments for the salaries of employees working at the Office of the President in 1999 amounted to 17.3 million kuna and in 2005 they amounted to 13.4 million or 77.49 percent of the 1999 costs.
In 2002 and 2003 the Office of the President took over 85 employees of the Department for Residence Maintenance, which was dissolved at the time, and nine employees of the State Protocol Department. The costs of the Residence Maintenance Department were 26.8 million kuna and of the State Protocol Department 4.4 million. Added to the costs of the Office of the President, which in 1999 amounted to 29 million, they total 60.2 million. For the sake of comparison, the 2006 budget of the Office of the President amounts to 52.4 million, which is 7.8 million less or 87 percent of the costs in 1999.
The Office recalls in the statement that every budget draft had been discussed by the parliament and that all draft state budgets, as well as their amendments, had been published in the National Gazette.
In 2000 the Office of the President had 73 employees and today it has 169 employees, but the public should be informed about the reasons for this increase, the Office says, reiterating that the number of presidential advisors had not increased.
The 1st Guard Corps, which is mentioned in the media reports, had around 2,500 members and in 1999 spent 272.6 million kuna. A similar unit exists today and is called the Honorary-Protection Brigade, which has five times fewer members and performs ceremonial and other duties, not only for the President of the Republic, but also for the Government and the Ministry of Defence. The Brigade answers to the Armed Forces' Chief-of-Staff, the Defence Minister and the Supreme Commander. For the sake of comparison, in 2005 the Brigade spent 41 million kuna, the Office of the President said in the statement.