On 1 July, the Statistical Office of Montenegro (MONSTAT) announced the 4th tender for the procurement of software that citizens would be able to use to control data on ethnic and cultural origins from the census.
In a statement for CdM, a program assistant of the Centre for Civic Education, Damir Suljevic, says that this is not about money, but companies just don’t want to get compromised or be exposed to negative publicity, since the sensitivity of this issue and possible political manipulations are likely to happen.
MONSTAT has increased the value of this public procurement, now standing at €24.999 (VAT excluded), that is, €30.249 including VAT. Previously, it amounted to €20.000 including VAT, that is, €16.529 excluding VAT.
Asked why, in his opinion, the previous three public procurement procedures failed, Mr Suljevic said the census in Montenegro, which was supposed to be a simple cross-sectional statistics, became a political issue.
“Unfortunately, the politicization of this issue reflects on specific segments of its complete realization, including the development of a software that citizens would be able to use to control the inserted data”.
Although it was announced that the preliminary results of the census would be presented in the second half of this year, it might not happen because of the problem with software procurement.
The census was held from 3-28 Dec. 2023 and there were no irregularities recored at that time.
According to preliminary data published by MONSTAT in late January, Montenegro’s population has risen by around 2% since 2011, and is at 633.158.
