Montenegro’s State Audit Institution (DRI) has issued a qualified opinion on the financial audit and a negative opinion on the compliance audit of the proposed final account of the state budget for 2025, citing significant irregularities in the work of the Ministry of Finance and other budget users.
According to the proposed final account, Montenegro recorded budget revenues of approximately €2.87 billion and expenditures of €3.19 billion, resulting in a reported cash deficit of €313.68 million. Following the audit, revenues were found to require an upward adjustment of €11 million, while expenditures needed to increase by €3.6 million. After these corrections, the cash deficit was calculated at €306.32 million, while the modified cash deficit stood at €320.53 million. The auditors identified several compliance issues, including the Ministry of Finance’s failure to fully align Treasury General Ledger records with the applicable accounting rules.
Some budget users also entered into commitments exceeding their allocated funds, while overdue liabilities were not settled regularly and certain liabilities recovered through compulsory enforcement were not removed from the accounts. In addition, the final tax account for 2025 was not submitted within the legally prescribed deadline, and budget revenues totalling approximately €7.76 million from the net profits of Monteput and Airports of Montenegro had not been recorded in full.
The report also found that only 10.17% of recommendations from the previous audit of the 2024 budget final account had been implemented. A further 13.56% were partially implemented, while 61.02% remained unimplemented. The DRI called for improvements to tax records, better alignment of Treasury accounting practices and stricter compliance with the rules governing the allocation of funds during periods of temporary financing.
