Montenegro audit office issues qualified opinion on dispute-resolution center: 15 recommendations, action plan due by October 28

Montenegro’s State Audit Institution (DRI) has issued a qualified opinion on the 2025 annual financial report and legal compliance of the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, after the audit uncovered a series of irregularities in the institution’s work, as the Montenegrin portal CdM reports.

According to the DRI announcement, the responsible collegium — chaired by Vesna Mihailović with member Milan Popović — found that the Center had paid advances of €32,939.97 (€6,940 for postal services and €25,999.97 for the purchase of an official vehicle) before the services were performed or the goods delivered, and without valid financial documentation. The irregularities were assessed as materially significant but not pervasive to the financial reports, hence the qualified opinion.

The compliance audit also found that the Center had no complete risk-management system and, although the internal control self-assessment had identified weaknesses, it had not adopted a plan to address them. The general ledger was not kept properly, the asset inventory was not carried out according to the rules, and the Center had not appointed a person responsible for public procurement contracts, nor published implementation reports in the electronic system within the legal deadline.

The DRI gave the Center 15 recommendations. The institution must submit its action plan for implementing them to the DRI by October 28, and a report on the implementation of the recommendations by March 28, 2027.

The final audit report was sent to the Parliament of Montenegro for information, in line with the cooperation protocol between Parliament and the DRI — placing the Center, an institution meant to be an efficient alternative to the courts, itself under the lens of institutional oversight.