Novi Sad: Two NGO Leaders Arrested in Six Days

The Special Anticorruption Department of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad has detained two association leaders within six days, both on the same description of the offense. The second arrest came on August 3, when M. M. (39) of Futog, head of the association “Novi Sad Knowledge Factory,” was taken into custody. Six days earlier, on July 28, the same department arrested J. C. (33), head of the “Center for Local Youth Activism Futura.”

Both men are charged with the continuing criminal offense of abuse of position by a responsible person under Article 227 of the Criminal Code. Together, the two cases cover 50 projects and 15,731,000 dinars. In both cases the money came from the same source, the budget of the City of Novi Sad and the provincial treasury, meaning city administrations and provincial secretariats, not the republic level.

The same pattern in both cases

The City of Novi Sad and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina awarded the Novi Sad Knowledge Factory funding for 31 projects, totaling 8,690,000 dinars. Prosecutors say none of the work was actually done, yet the funders kept receiving reports on how the money had been spent.

“The project activities were not carried out, and the suspect submitted false reports to the funders justifying the use of the allocated money, describing project activities that never took place (workshops, lectures and similar events),” the Special Anticorruption Department said in a statement released on August 3.

The damage was recorded at the full amount of the awarded funds, all 8,690,000 dinars, charged to the budgets of the City of Novi Sad and the province. The arrest was carried out by officers of the Criminal Police Directorate’s Anticorruption Service. The Interior Ministry (MUP) specified in its own statement the period covered, from 2020 to 2025, and said the suspect “spent funds paid out by the City of Novi Sad’s administrations and the provincial secretariats for purposes other than intended, without carrying out the underlying contracts.”

The July 28 case follows the same outline. The Center for Local Youth Activism Futura received 7,041,000 dinars for 19 projects, also from the City of Novi Sad and provincial secretariats, and also for the 2020 to 2025 period. The description of the offense is almost word for word the same: reports on workshops and lectures that never happened.

Is this the money being debated in Belgrade?

No, and the two stories diverge right at the source of the funds. In Belgrade, the talk these days is about 1.3 billion euros that associations and foundations registered in Serbia received from abroad between 2021 and 2025, according to a response from the National Bank of Serbia. National Assembly speaker Ana Brnabic has invited Serbian Sovereignists leader Vuksa Dragovic for talks on the matter, with a meeting set for Tuesday, August 4.

The Novi Sad cases have nothing to do with foreign money. This is domestic, grant funded money, backed by a contract, a deadline, a report and a funder who received and signed off on that report. With the foreign inflow, the debate is over who is sending it and why. With the city and provincial money, there is a paper trail showing who approved it and who signed off on how it was spent, so responsibility can be established without any political judgment.

A pattern visible from the statements

This department of the prosecution is working in a series. On the website of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad, over the past five weeks, statements have appeared on arrests ordered by the Special Department on July 1, July 8, July 24, July 28, July 29 and August 3. The cases differ, ranging from embezzlement and money laundering to tax fraud involving value added tax, but the frequency itself stands out.

What neither statement shows is what the funders themselves are doing. Neither the City of Novi Sad nor the provincial secretariats have said whether they are seeking to recover the money paid out, or whether anyone checked the reports before the next round of grants was announced. Until a final verdict, both arrested men remain suspects, and the question of how 50 projects passed through two budgets without a single field check does not depend on the outcome of those proceedings.