State auditors on general strike from Monday: audit of the final 2025 budget account suspended

The employees of Montenegro’s State Audit Institution (DRI) will go on a general strike from Monday, October 5, 2026 — a complete stoppage of work — after no institution reacted following the one-hour warning strike, as the Montenegrin newspaper Pobjeda reports.

The strike was announced by the DRI Strike Committee, according to which the institution’s Senate and the Government did not meet the demands to undertake, by September 30, concrete activities for the implementation of the Parliament’s conclusion, which tasks the Government “to ensure funds for improving the material position of state auditors and adequate working premises.”

During the strike all audit work will be suspended: planning, carrying out audits, writing minutes and reports — including the audit of the Draft Law on the final account of Montenegro’s budget for 2025.

The strikers will continue to show up for work and will ensure the safekeeping of documentation for the protection of confidential data; the strike will last until the demands on pay and working premises are met.

According to the Strike Committee, for two years the Government has been cutting the funds approved by the parliamentary committee for the DRI, while the Ministry of Finance twice refused to approve the pay regulation. The auditors call this “inappropriate influence of the executive power,” which undermines the institution’s independence according to the international INTOSAI standards.

The main demand is the equalisation of net pay, currently around 1,200–1,300 euros, with that of judges (around 1,500 euros), as well as a solution to the building issue — the DRI, founded in 2004, has never had official premises and is currently located in the premises of the former “Premijer” hotel, part of a bankruptcy estate. The auditors earlier received the support of the DRI Senate president, Siniša Čađenović, and senator Milan Popović, emphasising that the institution’s independence is essential for Montenegro’s European Union accession process.