In 2024, the state budget of Montenegro lost 19.304.581,37 euros based on final court judgments and out-of-court settlements. Collections by forced means, interest costs, court and enforcement costs, according to some calculations, amounted to 30 to 40 percent of the total amount.
According to the report of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport - Traffic Administration paid the most based on lawsuits and out-of-court settlements, which facilitated the state treasury by 3.383.836,22 euros. The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property follows in terms of the amount with 3.190.980,51 euros. The Ministry of Internal Affairs cost the budget 3.149.784,59 euros, and the Ministry of Defense allocated 1.564.337,70 euros for this purpose.
The Traffic Administration emphasizes that the amount of 2.140.062,67 euros was paid for the purposes of the real estate expropriation procedure for the reconstruction of the M-2 Debeli Brijeg - Tivat - Budva main road, and it occurred, as they say, due to inadequate changes in the organization of the work of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property and lasted from October 2023 to April 10, 4, when the amendment to the Expropriation Law was adopted.
They note that the funds for the expropriation of real estate for the reconstruction of the M-2 Debeli Brijeg - Tivat - Budva highway were provided in the budget, in a special account of the Ministry of Finance - a deposit for expropriation in the amount of 14.743.000 euros.
Also, the amount of 741.167,48 euros was paid out forcibly on this basis for the purposes of other expropriation procedures.
The remaining amount of 647.995,40 euros was paid by compulsory means by public bailiffs who acted on final court judgments.
For 200 lawsuits, more than three million
The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property points out that, in the Treasury General Ledger, as of December 31, 2024, 3.190.980,51 euros were paid to suppliers through so-called court decisions.
This department points out that there are about 200 individual lawsuits, totaling 3.190.980,51 euros.
The stated amount refers to payments of costs incurred based on final judgments of the Basic Court, the Higher Court, the Administrative Court, final decisions on enforcement by public bailiffs, civil proceedings, as well as on the basis of labor and employment rights and the like, say the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, adding that they are rapidly working on securing records of court disputes, for their own needs and for the purpose of informing citizens about the spending of their money.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Police Administration, they say, are not provided with documentation on which payments were made (the original of the final court judgment is not provided), but rather the amount based on forced collection, through the State Treasury - the Ministry of Finance, is only recorded in the budget of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Police Administration. Expenditures incurred on the basis of final and enforceable decisions are recorded under expense 4630 - repayment of liabilities from the previous period.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs was not granted funds under the 2024 Budget Law for expenditure item 4630 - repayment of liabilities from the previous period, but they were requested under the Request for Budget Funds for 2024.
For 2024, based on court judgments, collection was made by forced means (through the State Treasury - Ministry of Finance) from the Activity - Support to Police Work in the amount of 1.884.910,61 euros and from the Activity - Management and Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the amount of 1.264.873,96 euros.
The Ministry of Defense states that the payment in the amount of 1.564.337,70 euros refers to payments based on final court decisions and verdicts from labor disputes, expropriation, employee lawsuits, forced collections from suppliers, etc., and to around 380 paid items from the aforementioned labor disputes.
SAI warned on time
The problem, however, is neither new nor unknown. The State Audit Institution (DRI) has warned both the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense in its reports.
"The Ministry of Defense did not make payments based on final court judgments, for which reason the collection was carried out forcibly, based on the enforcement decision," states the Audit Report (Annual Financial Report) of the Ministry of Defense for 2023.
The SAI also issued a recommendation emphasizing that the Ministry of Defense should act in accordance with final and enforceable decisions of competent courts and other authorities and thus avoid uneconomical spending of budget funds in the process of forced collection of receivables.
A similar recommendation was made by the SAI during its audit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The SAI first noted that the expenditures recorded in account 4630 - repayment of liabilities from the previous period in the total amount of 2.531.761,73¤ relate to forced collection based on enforcement decisions of public bailiffs submitted to the Ministry of Finance by the Central Bank of Montenegro. The audit determined that the Ministry of Interior does not have documentation (payment requests, enforcement decisions, etc.) for 96% of the expenditures included in the sample. The above represents an established practice that results in additional enforcement costs that are paid from the budget and prevents the implementation of financial control of the spending of state money in the manner prescribed by the Instructions on the Work of the State Treasury.
The SAI recommendation states that the Ministry of Internal Affairs should, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the Protector of Property and Legal Relations, "ensure that final and enforceable decisions of competent courts and other authorities are followed, thus avoiding uneconomical spending of budget funds in the forced collection of claims and ensuring financial control of the spending of state money, in the manner prescribed by the Instructions on the Work of the State Treasury."
Bojana Cirovic, the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro, answering the question of what needs to be done to reduce budget expenditures on this basis in a future period, points out that there are four phases.
"The first and foremost thing is to stop entering the mediation procedure and further into the court procedure, because even then additional costs arise in the form of interest, or later additional court and enforcement costs. This would mean that all budget units would start recording, calculating and paying on a monthly basis, along with earnings, claims for overtime work, work during religious and public holidays, and all those legally guaranteed claims of workers, whose calculation is possible on a monthly basis. In that case, it would be preventive action," Ćirović points out.
Increase due to interest and procedural costs
As for mediation procedures before the Agency, the Protector explains, in the case where the calculation has not been carried out as previously explained, then the budgetary units can make settlements themselves, but even then the interest appears as an additional cost, or damage to the budget. If the procedure is not resolved before the Agency, a court procedure occurs in which case the Protector assumes jurisdiction and conducts the procedure, and the role of the budgetary units is to submit all the requested data and provide statements, within the deadlines, because there is always a possibility that the claim is unfounded.
"However, at this stage, in lost disputes, damage occurs in the form of procedural costs. After this stage, the Protector sends the judgments to the budgetary units for enforcement, however, in practice, certain budgetary units do not act within the deadlines and do not enforce the judgments, when in addition to interest and court costs, damage occurs in the form of forced enforcement costs," points out Bojana Ćirović, emphasizing that according to some calculations, the additional cost through failure to act amounts to 30 to 40 percent.
She points out that the above refers to labor disputes and that the total outflow from the budget is not exclusively from enforced judgments, but also amounts related to failure to act on invoices and various other obligations of budgetary units assumed through contractual relationships...
As for other budget beneficiaries, the Prosecutorial Council says that during 2024, the Ministry of Finance, for the needs of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, as part of the repayment of obligations from the previous period, recorded court executions in the amount of 166.659,58 euros. These funds relate to claims based on final court decisions, including fees for experts, interpreters, lawyers, as well as claims from labor disputes.
The Directorate for Forest and Hunting Management says that each payment in the amount of 628.258,18 euros was made based on enforceable judgments of Montenegrin courts, and that there is no out-of-court settlement and that the Directorate did not conclude out-of-court settlements. Most of the amounts are final judgments for claims dating back 15 years, while two judgments in the amount of 129.000 euros and one judgment in the amount of 209.000 euros are based on the judgment of the Commercial Court for disputes dating back to 2008 to 2014, because the works were stopped according to the court's judgment, and the then management of the Directorate and the ministry did not provide conditions for the smooth execution of the works, the Directorate points out.
They note that they are particularly proud that such omissions cannot occur for the period from 2024, although some wanted to ban work in departments where everything is paid, and in the event that contracts were not annexed, it would be possible for users to sue the state and compensate for all costs plus lost profits, as in the case mentioned above.
The Ministry of Energy paid 2024 euros on this basis in 11.045,22. This amount refers to two payments made during 2024, in accordance with out-of-court settlement decisions.
The first payment relates to the collection of debt arising from the purchase of airline tickets, while the second payment was made based on the collection of debt and court costs related to a case dating back to 2016, the court proceedings of which were finally concluded in 2023.
Both settlements were carried out in accordance with the legal procedure and with prior approval from the competent institutions.
AZLP paid out 350.000 euros
The Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information paid out 350.640,47 euros on this basis.
The Agency paid for lawsuits and based on judgments and decisions of the Administrative Court, as well as on decisions on the enforcement of judgments in proceedings conducted between the Agency and first-instance entities subject to the application of the Law on Free Access to Information, applicants for Free Access to Information, as well as in proceedings in the field of personal data protection between the Agency and applicants for objections to decisions of the Agency's Council.
This institution also paid for the costs of administrative disputes arising from the engagement of lawyers by plaintiffs in proceedings against the Agency, and the parties are awarded costs for engaging lawyers by judgments.
The amount of 133.757,58 euros refers to payments made based on executive court decisions, when the competent department operated under the name of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare reminds that, at the time when these court obligations arose, this department had a very broad scope of work, which included labor relations and labor rights, including - inspection supervision and labor disputes, labor market and employment policy, pension and disability insurance, social and child protection, care for persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, veteran and disability protection, occupational safety and health, as well as competencies in the areas of international cooperation, European integration and record keeping in these areas.
"Vijesti" obtained the data for this article thanks to the Law on Free Access to Information, using the MANS application "Ask the Institutions".
Disagreement between the Traffic Administration and the Ombudsman
The Traffic Administration emphasizes that in most cases they receive from the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro, they do not have the necessary instructions for further action, and in most cases they do not even have the opportunity to voluntarily act on final court judgments.
"It is necessary that in the future the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro submits letters in which he will clearly and precisely provide instructions according to final court judgments," they say to the Traffic Administration
As an example, they cite a letter from the Ombudsman - Kotor office No. 28/10 dated November 10, 2024, stating that they are submitting the Supreme Court's decision Už-Rev. No. 28/24 dated November 27, 2024 for information on the course of the proceedings, without stating that it is necessary to pay compensation on this basis.
"The Protector delivers judgments to all bodies whose legal representative he is, in an identical manner, for action. In the event of ambiguities, which cannot exist, because it is known what is done according to final judgments, given that the administration has lawyers among its employees, the administration is free to request additional clarifications. This is also due to the existence of constant communication between the Protector and the Transport Administration," the office of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro responds.
Municipalities paid 6.543.694,9 euros on the same basis
In 19 Montenegrin local governments, as Vijesti wrote, 6.543.694,9 euros were paid last year based on lawsuits and out-of-court settlements.
The absolute record holder is the Capital City, which had to allocate 2024 euros from the budget for these purposes in 2.890.565,01. Budva follows with 1.552.272 euros, and the local government of Kotor spent a little more than half a million euros for these purposes.
It is interesting that the Municipality of Plužine did not have any contributions for these purposes in 2024.
The first and most important thing is to stop entering the mediation process and further into court proceedings... This would mean that all budget units would start recording, calculating and paying out on a monthly basis, along with earnings, claims for overtime work, work during religious and public holidays, and all those legally guaranteed claims of workers... In that case, preventive action would be
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