The government can establish a special working body that will deal with diplomas obtained outside Montenegro, and every state body, public administration body, institution... will have to submit educational documents of employees upon their request.
This is specified in a new article of the Bill on Amendments to the Law on the Recognition of Foreign Educational Documents and Equalization of Qualifications, which was proposed through an amendment by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, and accepted by the Government during yesterday's electronic session.
"In order to protect the public interest in the field of recognition and equivalence of foreign educational documents, the Government of Montenegro may establish a special working body that will analyze the situation in this area and make recommendations to the competent authorities. For the purposes of preparing the analysis referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, the working body shall collect data and documentation on employees in state administration bodies, administrative bodies, public institutions and other entities exercising public powers, which relate to their education. The bodies, institutions and other entities referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article are obliged to submit the requested data and documentation, including personal data, at the request of the working body referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article," states the amendment to the MoE adopted yesterday.
The working body, it is specified, processes and stores personal data in accordance with the law governing the protection of personal data.
The aim of introducing the new article, according to the MoE's explanation, is to "protect the public interest and improve legal certainty and integrity of the procedure for recognizing foreign educational documents."
"In order to implement this measure, the possibility of forming a special working body by the Government is prescribed, which will have the authority, in accordance with the Law on the Processing of Personal Data, to access, process and store personal data contained in the relevant documentation. This ensures the legality of handling sensitive data, as well as the responsibility of persons responsible for managing such data. The amendment also regulates the obligations of submitting documentation on employees by state administration bodies, administrative bodies, public institutions and other entities exercising public authority, relating to their education," the explanatory note specifies.
The government gave a positive opinion on the proposal of PES MPs last week. Darko Dragović, Dragana Vukčević i Branka Markovic to add a provision to the same law relating to the temporary suspension of the recognition of diplomas.
If the Parliament adopts the Draft Law, the procedure for recognizing diplomas from abroad may be temporarily suspended if the institution where they were acquired is the subject of pre-trial or criminal proceedings, if it is prohibited from operating due to illegality, but also if the number of requests for recognition of documents submitted to the ENIC Center is disproportionately higher than the number of educational documents issued at higher education institutions in Montenegro for the same or similar qualification.
"Vijesti" recently announced that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued a decision to suspend the recognition of foreign educational certificates for more than 120 medical workers who, since mid-last year, have brought certificates of graduation from the Belgrade private Medical College "Milutin Milanković".
Of the 127 certificates submitted to that department for validation, as many as 94 were issued last September. On September 19 alone, this private institution, headquartered in Zemun and with a regional office in Tutin, issued more than 20 graduation certificates to Montenegrin citizens.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia requested verification of the authenticity of these foreign documents through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As no response has been received from the competent authorities of Serbia to date, decisions have been made to suspend the recognition process. The process can only be continued after a response from the authorities in Serbia," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the editorial staff at the time.
The Ministry recently told "Vijesti" that it will not recognize any diplomas from the private "Tutin" High School in Tutin that were obtained since 2019, when the institution was banned from operating due to illegality. This includes more than 60 diplomas.
At the end of last year, the Government, at the proposal of the Ministry Angel Jakšić Stojanović has decided to suspend, pending the verdict of the Bosnian courts, the procedures for recognizing educational documents that previously arrived from the Independent University of Political and Social Sciences, the University of Business Engineering and Management "PIM", as well as the College of Applied and Legal Sciences "Prometej" from Banja Luka, the University "Victoria International University" and the College "Union" from Mostar, and the International University of Brčko.
New criminal charges
The Ministry of Education and Training, it was announced yesterday, filed three more criminal charges with the Podgorica Basic State Prosecutor due to reasonable suspicion that persons OK, MK and AN submitted false and untrue educational documents.
"...For which, in the process of recognizing foreign educational documents, the competent institutions determined that they were not authentic public documents. Based on this, there is a reasonable suspicion that the persons OK, MK and AN committed the criminal offense of forging a document under Article 412 of the Criminal Code. We expect the competent authorities to act in accordance with their jurisdiction and authorities, in order to resolve this significant institutional problem," the Ministry of Education and Science announced.
Bonus video:
