Centre for Civic Education (CCE) has submitted three initiatives to the competent institutions, requesting a long-overdue examination of the spending of more than two million euros in public funds that the University of Montenegro (UoM) and its organisational units allocated in previous years to the Student Parliament of the University of Montenegro (SPUoM), student councils, and other student organisations.
The initiatives were submitted to the State Audit Institution (SAI), the Budget Inspection Directorate of the Ministry of Finance, as well as to the Governing Board, the Rector and the Internal Audit Service of the UoM. CCE has already clearly pointed to the lack of transparency in the spending of these funds, as well as the institutional ping-pong between the UoM and SPUoM regarding responsibility and access to information. And silence concerning more than two million euros in public funds is a serious reason for action by the competent institutions.
CCE recalls that as early as 2021, the SAI, through the audit of the Annual Financial Report of the UoM Rectorate for 2020, identified weaknesses in financial management and the internal control system, issuing a conditioned opinion on both the financial statements and compliance with regulations. At the time, transfers to the Student Parliament and student organizations were also recorded, but the manner in which those funds were spent has never been subject to audit. The SAI also pointed to serious problems in the functioning of internal audit at the UoM, noting that internal auditors had not been granted access to the University’s information system, which prevented the planned audit of employees’ salaries financed from the state budget. This confirms that the problem of public funds oversight at the UoM is not new, but also that the lack of an effective institutional response encourages its further expansion.
This raises the issue of the conduct of bodies at the UoM. Namely, the UoM Internal Audit Charter, adopted by the Governing Board at the end of 2025, covers all University activities without exception. Therefore, there are no legal obstacles to auditing the spending of funds transferred to student organisations. Nevertheless, according to CCE’s information, the UoM Internal Audit Service has to date never reviewed the spending of these funds, neither through regular nor extraordinary audits. The decade-long transfer of millions of euros without a single serious report on how those funds were spent cannot be treated as an administrative oversight or marginal risk, but rather as a systemic issue consciously ignored by all rectors and other governing bodies of the UoM.
For clarification, competences within the UoM are clearly defined. The Governing Board may order an audit. The Rector is obliged to ensure access to documentation. The Internal Audit Service has the mandate to carry out oversight. In short, everything is formally regulated, but there appears to be no willingness to subject the system to scrutiny.
It is of particular importance that the Governing Board, which adopts the consolidated financial reports of the UoM in which transfers to SPUoM are presented without information on expenditure, and which allocates these funds through its decisions, orders an audit of what it has itself adopted and approved. It is equally important that the Rector of the UoM, Vladimir Božović, who refused to provide the requested documentation to the CCE, demonstrates a greater degree of responsibility in overseeing these funds.
Their further actions will demonstrate whether the internal control mechanisms at the UoM function at all when accountability touches those who should activate them. If they do not, then the Internal Audit Charter is a document without purpose, and the autonomy of the University of Montenegro and SPUoM merely an excuse for public funds to remain beyond oversight.
CCE recalls that the Governing Board of the UoM consists of: professor PhD Milivoje Radović, (President), professor PhD Drago Perović, professor PhD Nevena Mijajlović, professor PhD Vuk Vuković and professor PhD Srđa Aleksićas representatives of academic staff with academic titles; professor PhD Milijana Novović Burić, professor PhD Anđelka Šćepanović, Milena Burić, PhD, Saša Roćen and Nikola Zečević, MA as representatives of the founding institution; Jovana Janinović, PhD as representative of associates; Sekule Raičević as representative of professional and non-academic staff; and Vedran Vujisić, Ivana Popović and Aleksandar Banjević as representatives of students. Each member of the Governing Board has the right to vote, but also bears personal responsibility for the decision on this initiative.
CCE expects the competent institutions, through their actions, to demonstrate that oversight of public funds applies equally to all, including the UoM and student structures managing substantial budgetary resources. More than two million euros of public money cannot remain in a zone without genuine oversight, reporting, and accountability. The reaction of the competent institutions will show whether they have the capacity to protect the public interest or, for some reason, continue to tolerate years of non-transparency and misuse of the autonomy of the UoM and SPUoM.
Jovana Radulović, Programme Assistant