An audit of Montenegro’s 2024 budget by the State Audit Institution (DRI) found that the accounting records of tax debt do not reflect the actual obligations of taxpayers. The report highlighted issues including off-balance-sheet handling of municipal and state enterprise debt rescheduling, delayed payments, unrecorded canceled rescheduling decisions from 2022–2024, unimplemented fund transfers, and legacy debt from 20 years ago that remains on taxpayer accounts, often likely expired.
The audit stressed the need for the Tax Administration to implement a unified tax information system covering accounting, taxpayer accounts, and reporting. According to the draft budget law, revenues were 2.75 billion euros and expenditures slightly over 3 billion euros, resulting in a reported cash deficit of 247.5 million euros. After audit adjustments, including increasing revenues by 3.2 million euros and reducing expenditures by 38.8 million euros, the corrected deficit stands at 216.8 million euros.
DRI also noted that 66% of recommendations from the 2023 budget audit were not implemented. The Ministry of Finance has not fully aligned its records and reports with legal requirements, with discrepancies in the Treasury General Ledger and accounting of consumer units. Obligations were sometimes contracted outside the budget, not regularly settled, or not properly cleared after collection. Additionally, the final tax account for 2024 was not submitted on time, and development funds for less-developed municipalities were not fully consolidated in the Treasury system, leaving some funds off-balance-sheet.
