While the Ministry of Education, from time to time, informs the public that they have filed another criminal complaint due to suspicion of a fake diploma, in Podgorica Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) the figures are as follows:
"From the beginning of 2023 until today, 56 cases have been established. In seven cases, an indictment proposal was submitted to the competent court, some were transferred to other prosecutions due to actual and local jurisdiction, one case ended with the dismissal of the criminal complaint, and in the others, the investigation is still ongoing," said ODT Podgorica.
The fact that the epilogue of these cases takes longer is illustrated by the example of "Vijesti" journalist Ana Komatina.
"Not even six months after the publication of the research that Mrs. Miljana Pavličić, the assistant director of the Institute of Public Health, faked her diploma, we have no epilogue neither in that, nor in the cases that followed, concerning fake diplomas. To this day, there is neither individual nor systemic responsibility for that case," Komatina points out.
She, however, notes that certain disciplinary procedures and resignations were carried out, but she questions another segment of this case.
"As far as we know, she is only charged with falsifying an official document. "Given that the documentation shows us something else, we are surprised that until today no one has raised the issue of the fact that there might be quack-medicine or extended fraud here on Wednesdays," he adds.
The Police Administration (UP) told Television News that their Department for Combating Crime has submitted one criminal complaint to the ODT since the beginning of the year due to suspicion of a fake diploma.
"This application refers to a falsified secondary vocational diploma, which is suspected to have not been obtained in Montenegro," said the UP.
The Ministry of Education files the largest number of criminal reports due to suspected falsification of diplomas, and since the beginning of this year it has done so 22 times.
"18 criminal reports are due to suspicion of falsification of secondary education documents, we have two for higher education and two even for elementary education. Two suspicions are related, I think, to the Secondary Vocational School in Nikšić, that one of them is suspicion of falsification of educational documents nurses", says Dragan Bojović from the Ministry of Education.
"In Bjelopolje General Hospital, we had a situation where two nurses were also prosecuted for working with a fake diploma. It must be admitted that the new convocation of the Ministry of Education is really working to try to systematically regulate this area, but until the investigations are completed in the prosecutor's office, indictments are filed, and the perpetrators of such crimes are adequately sanctioned, I am afraid that we are going round in circles, and let's not move from the carrot point," notes Komatina.
According to the data of the Basic Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, the diplomas that are suspected to be fake mostly come from higher education institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, that is, from Foča, Tuzla, Subotica, Novi Sad, Zagreb. Some of the professions with dubious diplomas are psychologist, economist, forestry engineer, professor of physical education and sports.
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