The Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (MASA) systematically fails to implement the oversight mechanisms that it has itself agreed upon with ministries, state-owned companies, and other institutions, while those same agreements are regularly used as the legal basis for the transfer of public funds. This is demonstrated by data collected by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) through requests for free access to information.
The CCE reviewed nine cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding concluded by MASA with the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Region Development, the Ministry of Energy and Mining, the Ministry of Sports and Youth, Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG), the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG), the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System (CEDIS), the Montenegrin Electricity Transmission System (CGES), and the Montenegrin Organisation for the Protection of Music Authors’ Rights (PAM CG).
All of these agreements contain an identical provision requiring the establishment of a four-member Coordination Committee, composed of two representatives from each party, to monitor their implementation. The Committee is required to meet at least twice a year and report on its work to the signatories. According to the available information, however, this explicit contractual obligation has almost never been fulfilled in practice.
For example, under the agreement with the Ministry of Culture, signed in March 2017, nearly 20 Coordination Committee meetings should have been held by now, yet only one meeting, in March 2023, has been recorded. Likewise, under the Memorandum of Understanding with RTCG, signed in November 2021, only one meeting, in June 2025, has been held. The agreements with EPCG, CEDIS, and CGES, signed in November 2023, have likewise each recorded only one meeting.
With regard to the agreements concluded with the Ministry of Energy and Mining and the Ministry of Sports and Youth, the CCE has not yet received information confirming whether the Coordination Committees have been established at all.
The case of the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Region Development is particularly illustrative. The agreement was signed in June 2025, the Coordination Committee was appointed in September of the same year, yet, according to the available information, it has not held a single meeting. Despite this, in April 2026, the Government approved the reallocation of EUR 25,000 to that Ministry for the benefit of MASA, relying precisely on that agreement as the legal basis. The funds were reallocated from a budget line originally intended for local self-government authorities.
A similar pattern was recorded at the end of 2024, when the Government approved the reallocation of EUR 45,000 from the budget of the Ministry of Culture and Media to MASA. The reallocated funds had originally been earmarked for activities supporting cultural and artistic creativity in municipalities, the development of culture in northern Montenegro, and research into and the protection of cultural heritage.
In other words, these agreements serve as the legal basis when public funding needs to be justified, while their provisions on implementation oversight and accountability are disregarded as soon as the funds are approved.
It is particularly noteworthy that the meetings of the Working Group for the Initial Phase of the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro were remunerated, resulting in 33 meetings, whereas the Coordination Committees, whose members receive no remuneration, either never met or held only a single meeting.
Following a series of requests for free access to information submitted by the CCE regarding this issue, a joint meeting of several MASA Coordination Committees was held on 16 June 2026, involving representatives of the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Region Development, the Ministry of Energy and Mining, EPCG, CEDIS, CGES, the Regulatory Agency for Energy and Regulated Utility Services (REGAGEN), the Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services (EKIP), the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Montenegrin Electricity Market Operator (COTEE). However, a single joint meeting cannot compensate for years of failure to fulfil contractual obligations, nor can it replace the regular oversight that the parties themselves provided for in the agreements. It is also indicative that the meeting took place only after the CCE raised the issue of the non-implementation of the agreed oversight mechanisms.
The CCE calls on MASA to begin consistently implementing the obligations it accepted by signing these agreements, to establish all Coordination Committees that have not yet been formed, and to publish the decisions on their appointment, together with the minutes of all meetings held.
At the same time, the CCE calls on the Government of Montenegro to make the future approval and reallocation of budgetary funds conditional upon evidence that institutions receiving public funds are genuinely implementing the oversight mechanisms they have themselves agreed to. Otherwise, such agreements are reduced to a purely formal basis for the transfer of public funds, instead of serving as instruments of accountability, transparency, and oversight of public spending.
Sara Čabarkapa, Active Citizenship Programme Coordinator