Podgorica, (MINA-BUSINESS) – The Centre for Civic Education (CGO) has analyzed how the Budget Inspectorate currently operates, and the findings, as they stated, raise questions about the readiness of institutions to ensure lawful, purposeful, and responsible spending of public funds.

CGO noted that this is a mechanism that should provide one of the safeguards against abuses in the public sector.

Programme Assistant Jovana Radulovic said that, Montenegro closed Chapter 32 – Financial Control at the end of January this year, and that the European Union highlighted the importance of the new Law on Budget Inspection and the need for its consistent implementation.

“However, it seems that the Ministry of Finance ignores these recommendations in practice,” Radulovic said. 

In response to CGO’s request for free access to information, seeking the Budget Inspectorate’s annual report for last year, the Ministry of Finance replied that the document is “in preparation.”

“CGO reminds that the Law on Budget Inspection clearly stipulates that the annual report of the Chief Budget Inspector must be submitted to the Minister of Finance by 15 January of the current year, which means that this legal provision has not been observed. Additionally, this report is not publicly available even after the end of the first quarter of the current year,” Radulovic said.