Belgrade Audit Finds 603 Billion Dinars Off the Books

The State Audit Institution (DRI) has issued a negative opinion on the consolidated financial statements of the City of Belgrade’s 2025 final budget account. Auditors say the city’s books understate the value of natural assets by an estimated 603.24 billion dinars (~5.1 billion euros), and that buildings, stadiums and garages were not recorded at all. Euro conversions use a rate of about 117.2 dinars to the euro.

What is missing from the city’s books?

Most of the findings concern land. Under the rulebook, the “natural assets” account holds land, mineral resources, forests and waters that budget users use in their work and manage. DRI formulates its estimate of the amount this way:

“The value of natural assets is understated by an estimated 603.24 billion dinars, which represents over 64 percent of the reported value of non-financial assets in the consolidated financial statements, because a significant share of the land to which the City of Belgrade holds ownership rights has not been recorded in the accounting books”

In the balance sheet at the end of 2025, natural assets are understated by at least 599.99 billion dinars, and capital by the same amount. The auditors explain that natural assets worth at least 633.4 billion dinars were not recorded in the books. For 56 cadastral municipalities not a single square meter is entered, and for another 111 the recorded areas fall short by at least 53,830,891 square meters. In the opposite direction, assets worth at least 33.4 billion dinars (~285 million euros) were recorded in excess because of duplicate entries and wrong areas, which does not comply with regulations.

Given the scale of these failures, DRI concludes:

“We consider the effects of the misstatements described, and especially the failure to record a significant volume of natural assets, whose financial effect is estimated at no less than 603,240,354,000 dinars, to be, individually and in aggregate, material and pervasive for the consolidated financial statements as a whole”

Which buildings were not entered?

Buildings and construction facilities are understated by at least 6.7 billion dinars (~57 million euros), and capital is lower by the same amount. The reason is that at least 56,881 square meters of structures were never recorded in the books: at least 100 buildings, two stadiums and 24 garages. Property and equipment overall are understated by at least 9.77 billion dinars (~83 million euros).

The auditors describe the consequences of leaving these assets unrecorded as follows:

“Failing to report assets that are owned creates a risk that the financial statements contain inaccurate data, as well as a risk of possible loss of those assets”

How much land does the city hold in the cadastre?

DRI compared the books with the database of the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ). According to that database, the City of Belgrade is registered as holder, user and lessee of construction land, with usage rights and ownership over a total of 129,779,762 square meters, or about 130 square kilometers. The auditors put it this way:

“The analysis established a difference in the recorded area of natural assets over which the City of Belgrade holds ownership rights, between RGZ data and the subsidiary ledger of fixed assets, of at least 61,032,073 square meters. Cadastral parcels with a total area of 2,786,639 square meters, where circumstances requiring additional verification existed, were excluded from the calculation of the unrecorded area”

The difference applies only to areas over which the city holds ownership rights, and parcels totaling 2,786,639 square meters were left out of the calculation pending further checks.

How was the 2024 account rated?

For the 2024 final budget account, DRI issued a qualified opinion in June 2025, not a negative one. The 2025 rating is therefore stricter than last year’s.

What does Belgrade in Motion say?

The organization Belgrade in Motion used a statement to criticize the work of DRI itself. It said the audit report on the City of Belgrade for 2025 once again stopped at administrative and accounting irregularities, while “the key questions of accountability for spending billions of dinars remain unanswered.” The organization’s executive director, Nikola Radin, a certified internal auditor in the public sector, said that even the finding of at least 600 billion dinars in incorrectly reported assets was not followed by a clear answer on who is responsible.

Belgrade in Motion claims it pointed to at least 30 tenders with serious indications of bidder favoritism and possible corruption. It demands an urgent review of those tenders and a thorough re-examination of DRI’s work. In the statement, Radin says:

“As far as we know, none of them has been the subject of a targeted DRI audit. We ask the leadership of this institution: who are you protecting and why are you silent? Their work, possible deliberate inaction, and possible involvement in covering up irregularities must be independently examined”

The organization also announces its next step, should grounds for suspicion of unlawful conduct emerge:

“If there are grounds to suspect unlawful conduct or deliberate inaction, we will ask the competent authorities to examine possible criminal liability as well. No one is above the law, and that includes state auditors. It is time for DRI to start doing its job, because otherwise its work will also have to become the subject of a serious investigation”

These are the organization’s allegations and demands, and we did not find a DRI response to them in the available sources.