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The Provincial Secretary of Agriculture, Vuk Radojević, and the wife of the President of the Provincial Government, Igor Mirović, received financial resources from the Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research, said the Vojvodina Research and Analysis Center (VOICE).
According to VOICE, among the 45 short-term projects of special interest for sustainable development in AP Vojvodina in 2020, whose funding was approved last month by department secretary Zoran Milošević, there are also projects in which Radojević and Vera participated as leaders. research. Mirović, associate professor at Subotica’s Faculty of Economics.
Milosevic confirmed for VOICE that among the approved projects is the one presented by his “distant cousin”, an associate professor at the Novi Sad Faculty of Technical Sciences, Mijodrag Milosevic.
Of the 179 projects submitted to the contest, which was announced on May 15 and with a budget of 29 million dinars, the provincial secretary Milosevic approved 45 projects, listening exclusively to the opinions of the Expert Councils in decision-making. About 600,000 dinars were reserved for each project.
The names of the members of these councils are not known to the public, and the only thing that is known are the names and surnames of the chairmen of eight of those councils, and Milosevic told VOICE that they are mostly full professors of the University of Novi Sad.
“The Council of Experts proposed funding for all approved projects, including the projects you mentioned. Both projects were evaluated with extremely high marks by the President and members of the Expert Councils (Radojevic received a score of 9, Mirovic 10) , who were guided by prescribed criteria, scientific principles and ethical principles in each individual case, “said Milosevic.
He added that “there is no prohibition for certain professors and researchers to compete in public competitions, in relation to marital status or public engagement” and any behavior “intended to discredit someone’s scientific research work could be considered discrimination.”
The Provincial Secretary did not consult the Anticorruption Agency about the possible conflict of interest, from where they told VOICE that there was a conflict of interest in this particular case, because people related to state officials received funds in the contest.
“According to article 2 of the Anti-Corruption Agency Law, a related party is the spouse or extramarital partner of an official, blood relative of an official in direct line or in collateral line up to the second degree of kinship, adoptive or adopted parent , as well as any other legal person or a natural person who, for other reasons and circumstances, may be considered to be of legitimate interest to the official, ”said VOZ.
The director of the Transparency Serbia program, Nemanja Nenadić, assessed that there were reasons for the provincial secretary to ask the Anti-Corruption Agency for advice and opinion.
In the case described, it could be affirmed that his colleagues from the Provincial Government benefit from the projects, so for their own good and for them he should have asked for confirmation that he can decide on the matter, although his decision is only a formal confirmation . which was proposed by the committee of experts, “Nenadic told VOICE.
The chairman of the Ethics Committee of the University of Novi Sad and professor at the Faculty of Law, Slobodan Orlović, told VOICE that whoever calls a competition and forms a commission that evaluates scientific projects should think about a possible conflict of interest in such cases. “.
“The most important thing is that whoever makes the final decision to accept the project takes into account the existence of a possible conflict of interest. It does not correspond to the participants in the contest because they have the right to participate by meeting the conditions of the contest, like other colleagues Orlovic said.
Four years ago, the provincial government made the decision to appoint Mirović’s brother Predrag as a member of the Supervisory Board of JVP “Vode Vojvodine”.
Following the procedure initiated, the Anti-Corruption Agency issued a warning to Mirović in October 2017, because by naming his brother he entered into a conflict of interest.
VOICE claims that, in early June, the provincial government appointed Nikoleta Mirović, wife of Igor Mirović’s brother, as Deputy Prosecutor General of AP Vojvodina for a term of five years.
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