Centre for Civic Education (CCE) specifically analysed part of the report on financial audit of Faculty of Philosophy related to studying programme in Berane submitted to rector Radmila Vojvodić along with following act no. 06-571 from 25/02/2015. CCE came across this document through its sources, because the management of UoM remained rather closed for public when it comes to its financial conduct.
Among other things, report indicated on unfulfilled contractual obligations between the municipality of Berane and Faculty of Philosophy. Namely, contract between Faculty of Philosophy and municipality of Berane from 2012 defines the obligations of Faculty of Philosophy based on which, in line with rules of Faculty and University, Faculty allocates resources from tuitions to pay for teaching fees to teaching staff. According to the contract, the Municipality is obliged to provide adequate space for teaching as well as to cover travel and accommodation costs of teachers and associates hired to teach. The municipality failed to carry out its obligations due to which a litigation was initiated in 2013, whereas the documentation for that litigation was not submitted to auditor. Receivables of Faculty from Municipality on 31/12/2014 amounted 19.488,25€.
In addition to not paying for receivables from municipality, it is obvious that Faculty of Philosophy failed to, based on tuitions, organise the manner to collect the same, thereby causing severe damage to Faculty itself. As of 2014/2015 studying year, balance of unpaid tuitions amounts 254.088,32€. It should be noted that the amount of 51.269,15€ relates to self-funded graduate students (47.769,15€) and to budget graduate students (3.500,00€), which is realistically uncollectible and presents a loss for Faculty of Philosophy for which none was held accountable.
Table 1: Review of debts and tuition payments on studying programme in order to educate teachers in line with the data from Central informative system of Student service CIS
Also, based on the supervision over the sampled student records, it was determined that payments of tuitions in the amount of 55.947,00€ were not documented in CIS programme and do not provide reliable data on the state of obligations, which indicates on inadequate and untimely manner of work of student service.
Based on the information programme of CIS for work of student services, as of 2014/2015, 108.797,37€ were documented in total, regarding the bachelor studies of Studying programme for English language, out of which, based on the CIS documentation, 93.394,43€ were unpaid, whereby 7.677,88€ relate to self-funded graduate students. The audit has shown that they subsequently recorded obligations at the end of 2014, for implementing teaching sessions at the study programme in Berane, to external associates and the ones employed in 2013 and 2014 in net amount of 199.665,32€ in line with following table. Documenting of these obligations in accounting without the chronological order leaves ample room for abuse.
Also, when it comes to implementation of teaching sessions for self-funded and budget students, it is important to note that there were no clear criteria for calculation of fees for teachers since the establishment of studying programme. Additionally, this was misused with arbitrary decisions on the payment of fees and thereby potentially discriminated one part and favoured the other part of teaching staff.
The audit showed that 24.010,94€ were paid for the aforementioned amount, thus total debts in net amount of unpaid obligations for realised teaching amounted 175.654,38€, 49.350,24€ for external associates and 126.304,14€ for employees. In addition, tax debt of Faculty of Philosophy on this basis amounts 293.344,38€, and it is the result of a calculation which involves calculated taxes and contributions (175.654,38*67% which is the sum of lowest total amount of calculated taxes and contributions=293.344,38€). Finally, Faculty of Philosophy still owes significant amount to teaching staff. Namely, in 2014, according to data from Main book of Faculty, obligations for additional work were documented in net amount of 225.861,79€, or in gross amount of 379.615,10€. Aforementioned obligations relate to obligations from period 01/09/2012 to 31/12/2014.
Management of UoM renders itself as an accomplice in what are obviously illegal actions by turning a blind eye to these irregularities in financial business of Faculty of Philosophy. Once again, CCE urges the management of UoM to cease with practice of concealing financial documentation, but also to react to all irregularities with which it is familiar in accordance with the law.
Daliborka Uljarević, executive director