The Ministry of Interior confirms that there was a delay, claiming that there are now enough license plates.

The Police Directorate (UP) currently has only two-thirds of its capacity, and the border police are experiencing the greatest shortage of personnel. The situation could soon change, as just over 300 candidates responded to the public call by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) last month. On the other hand, in recent weeks, complaints from citizens could be heard that they could not obtain new license plates. The MUP confirms that there was a delay, but that the problem has been resolved and that there are now enough of them.

Because the Police Directorate is short of nearly two thousand police officers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a public call for new personnel a month ago. 500 police officers were sought, but a little over 320 candidates responded to this advertisement. Of that number, those who meet the requirements will strengthen the ranks of the border police.

"This public call mostly referred to the central region, west and south. Considering the fact that the largest number of missing police officers is in the border police. The largest number of these persons will be employed in the border police. Applications are currently being processed. The current staffing level of the Police Directorate in terms of police officers is around 68,35 percent, which is around 1874 missing police officers in the system. A truly serious figure," Dragana Kažanegra Stanišić, State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, told Television Vijesti.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the department headed by Danilo Šaranović, does not hide the fact that they expected a larger number of reports.

"This number would certainly be higher, but taking into account the fact that recently, in August last year, the new Law on Civil Servants and Employees came into force, which stipulates that on the day of application, candidates must have passed the professional exam for work in state bodies. It was certainly one of the circumstances that determined them to wait for a new competition that we will announce and apply for it," said Kažanegra Stanišić.

And in the previous days and Sunday, there were a large number of people who complained that they could not get new license plates. Kazanegra Stanišić claims that this issue has been resolved and that the police are slowly starting to issue them regularly.

"This situation was successfully overcome precisely because of the procedures envisaged by the public invitation, i.e. tender and public procurement. It took time to complete the entire procedure. At the moment, we have a sufficient number of license plates. They were delivered to the branch unit in Podgorica yesterday, and will be delivered to all branches and branch units during the week," said Kažanegra Stanišić.

The Ministry of the Interior once again says that the recruitment of police personnel will take time, but that they expect the process to be completed by the end of next year.