The Centre for Civic Education (CCE) once again draws attention to the lack of transparency and the substantial fees paid by the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (MASA) to the Working Group for the Initial Phase of the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro (EM).
As previously reported by the CCE, a total of EUR 113,664.32 was spent on the Working Group for the Initial Phase of the Encyclopaedia between 7 February 2023 and 1 September 2024, of which EUR 104,044.52 was paid in fees and EUR 9,619.79 covered additional expenses. During this period, the Working Group held 33 remunerated meetings.
Having reviewed the minutes of 30 out of the 33 meetings, which MASA provided to the CCE in response to a request for free access to information, the CCE found that the minutes generally do not exceed one page and contain no agenda, record of the decision-making process, voting results, or dissenting opinions. Instead of documenting decisions, the minutes merely state that matters were “discussed” or that the members “agreed”. They also make reference to supporting documents (reports, analyses, visits) without attaching or cross-referencing them, nor do they monitor the implementation of previously adopted conclusions. For example, nowhere do the minutes indicate whether the deadline for organising the lexicographic material (31 March 2023) was met, nor what became of the planned Memorandum of Cooperation with the Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography.
Throughout more than thirty meetings, the Working Group largely discussed the same issues—namely, the structure of subject areas and proposals for editors. The Decision establishing the Working Group defined its task as initiating work on the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro until the Editorial Board of the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro was established. Yet even the minutes of the 30th meeting merely record the “preparation of the proposal for members of the Editorial Board.”
The Working Group’s meetings were financed from the budget allocated to the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro, meaning that more than thirty paid meetings resulted primarily in one-page minutes, with no measurable results and no information on the financial impact of the Working Group’s activities. Although the first meeting announced that additional funding would be sought through international and EU funds, this issue was never mentioned again in the subsequent minutes.
Furthermore, the numbering of the minutes itself does not allow verification of the actual number of paid meetings. Some sets of minutes cover several dates, while the Working Group meeting held on 15 March 2024 was documented only by an unnumbered and unsigned note, despite important decisions being adopted regarding the structure of subject areas.
On 30 January 2023, the Presidency of MASA appointed the Working Group, consisting of its own members and three MASA employees, with remuneration set at 20% of the average net salary per meeting. As early as 1 March, that remuneration was increased to 33% of the average net salary, without any explanation as to why the increase was justified despite no change in the scope of work. As a result, the Working Group effectively determined both its own composition and its own remuneration, while the President of MASA chaired every meeting and signed all minutes, meaning that the entire circle of decision-making, implementation and verification remained closed.
Dr Miloš Đaković, identified in the minutes as the “author of the software system,” was included in the Working Group’s activities at its sixth meeting, without any publicly documented procedure. The minutes contain no information regarding the contract under which he was engaged, the selection process, or the costs of his engagement, representing yet another indicator of the lack of transparency in MASA’s work. Similarly, although the need for specialised IT support was identified as early as the second meeting, the minutes provide no indication that this issue was ever addressed in a systematic manner.
The documentation provided contains no overall project budget, no estimated number of encyclopaedia entries, no implementation timeline, and no planned completion date. The project’s scope and duration were discussed only at the first meeting and were never revisited thereafter.
At its very first meeting, the Working Group concluded that it would focus on defining the concept of the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro, and it nominally continued working on that task until the end of its mandate. However, following the establishment of the Editorial Board of the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro, the Editorial Board itself opened an agenda item entitled “Preparation of the Concept and Criteria” at its first meeting, held on 23 September 2024, while the Draft Concept was not adopted until 10 March 2025—more than two years after work on the project had begun.
The Working Group’s case is illustrative of a pattern to which the CCE has consistently drawn attention: a body that effectively appointed itself and determined its own remuneration spent more than EUR 113,000 of public funds on 19 months of preparatory work, the actual results of which cannot be established even from its own records. The task for which it had been established—developing the concept, criteria, and organisational structure of the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro—was completed only two years later by the Editorial Board.
The CCE calls on MASA to report regularly, comprehensively, and transparently on the use of funds allocated to the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro. Citizens, who ultimately finance this project, have the right to know what has been achieved with their money, while the documentation provided does not demonstrate that more than EUR 113,000 of public funds resulted in commensurate and measurable outcomes.
Sara Čabarkapa, Active Citizenship Programme Coordinator