Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07BELGRADE303
2007-03-06 14:59:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Belgrade
Cable title:  

EDUCATION MAFIA ARRESTED ON BRIBERY CHARGES

Tags:  ECON KCRM KCOR PREL SR 
pdf how-to read a cable
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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0303/01 0651459
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061459Z MAR 07 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0398
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 000303 

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SENSITIVE
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DEPT FOR EUR/SCE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON KCRM KCOR PREL SR
SUBJECT: EDUCATION MAFIA ARRESTED ON BRIBERY CHARGES


SUMMARY
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 000303

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SCE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON KCRM KCOR PREL SR
SUBJECT: EDUCATION MAFIA ARRESTED ON BRIBERY CHARGES


SUMMARY
--------------

1. (U) Serbian police have arrested 18 people,
including 12 university teachers, in an ongoing
investigation of rampant corruption at the Law Faculty
of Kragujevac University. The arrests, all occurring
since February 20, include Assistant Minister of
Education Emilija Stankovic, Sveta Puric, rector of the
Kragujevac Law Faculty, and deputy rector Bozin
Vlaskovic. All are suspected of taking bribes over a
long period of time in exchange for issuing passing
grades to law students who did not sit for exams. The
arrests were a result of a seven-month operation that
included an undercover agent who enrolled in the law
school and paid to pass exams and get a diploma. END
SUMMARY.

EDUCATION MAFIA
--------------

2. (U) The members of the so called "education mafia",
as they already have been labeled by the media, are
accused of selling degrees from the Kragujevac Law
Faculty to students for EUR 12,000 to 16,000; they
allegedly sold passing grades on individual exams for
EUR 500 to 750. While checking the faculty archive,
police learned that some students even "took exams"
before they were officially enrolled at the faculty.
All of the arrested professors were found to have more
than one apartment and had been living well beyond
their means, according to press reports. For example,
Assistant Minister Stankovic was driving a BMW worth
EUR 70,000, and police found EUR 40,000 cash in the
apartment of one arrested professor. (Note: Average
salaries for law faculty professors are approximately
EUR 2,500 month.) The Law Faculty has suspended all of
the arrested professors from work.


3. (SBU) Milan Parivodic, Minister of International
Economic Relations and acting Minister of Finance, told
the Ambassador on February 21 that he had learned from
friends at the law faculty that the accused Assistant
Minister Stankovic had worked out a deal with seven
students to buy passing grades in her Roman Law class
for a total of EUR 3,500. The students collected the
money and delivered it to her with their student
indexes. After she signed their indexes with passing
grades, the students waited outside for her. According

to the minister's account, as Stankovic was leaving the
building, the students beat her, took their money back,
and walked away with the money and the grades in their
indexes.

OPERATION "INDEX"
--------------

4. (SBU) The investigation, under the operational name
"Index" (a student booklet in which grades are
registered) began in June 2006 in cooperation with the
Special Organized Crime Prosecution Department in
Belgrade. Milorad Veljovic, director of police at the
Ministry of Interior told our International Criminal
Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP)
office that police learned of the law faculty
corruption in a plea bargain with one of the mediators
who had been arrested for auto theft in a separate
incident. This police officer from Smederevo went
undercover as a student and used hidden cameras to
record every payment transaction at the Faculty.
Veljovic told the ICITAP office that the police action
in Kragujevac was a result of USG assistance of
specialized anti-corruption training and other
assistance to the police.


5. (U) The investigation is ongoing and could spread to
other institutions of higher learning where the
incriminated professors lectured. A police statement
said that the professors are suspected of taking bribes
from a large number of students in exchange for passing
grades over a long period of time. In accordance with
the Serbian criminal code, the arrested professors face
jail time from three months to 12 years if they are
convicted on charges of receiving bribes.

PROFESSORS SURPRISED, CITIZENS ELATED
--------------

6. (U) Members of the academic community were not
surprised by the arrests, and reactions were mixed.
Milos Djuran, dean of the Kragujevac University, first
learned of the police action from the media and said
that each of the accused should be held responsible.
Branko Kovacevic, Dean of Belgrade University, shared

BELGRADE 00000303 002 OF 003


similar sentiments, adding that these professors should
not be allowed to work at the university. However, he
questioned the credibility of the police, claiming that
they had protected criminals in the past, and added
that these charges must be proved first. Other
professors interviewed by the media, rather than
expressing concern over systemic corruption, complained
that police actions damaged the credibility of their
profession.


7. (U) Citizens and students from Kragujevac welcomed
the police action. The Student Union of Serbia (SUS)
said that it was not surprised by these arrests,
claiming that it had been warning authorities about
corruption, "which exists in all universities in
Serbia." SUS said the university system in general is
still not reformed, retaining values and rules from the
Milosevic era. SUS organized a campaign in 2005
publicizing its contention that bribery, document
counterfeiting, non-transparency in work, and forcing
students to buy books written by the professors were
examples of pervasive corruption throughout Serbia's
universities. SUS is asking that the investigation be
expanded to include the universities in Belgrade, Novi
Sad, Nis and Kosovska Mitrovica.


8. (U) Nemanja Stamencic from SUS told econ FSN that
SUS would announce on Monday, March 5, another
corruption case at a university. The Ministry of
Education and Sport announced on February 28 the
creation of a hotline for citizens to report incidents
of corruption in universities upon the request of
student organizations. However, Stamencic noted that
SUS for some time has had its own email address for
reporting corruption; he sees the ministry as
attempting to polish its image after the arrest of the
assistant minister.

ARRESTED PROFESSORS HELD HIGH POLITICAL POSITIONS
-------------- --------------

9. (U) Some of the arrested professors were politically
active and held high positions in political parties.
Assistant minister Stankovic, a nominee of Kostunica's
Democratic Party of Serbia, was dismissed from her
position at the ministry shortly after her arrest. (It
is not clear how active she was in the party.)
According to media reports, one of those arrested is
professor Predrag Stojanovic, who was a Fulbright
scholar, vice-chairman of Vladan BaticQs Christian
Democratic Party of Serbia (DHSS) and the partyQs
representative in the Serbian parliament from 2001 to

2004. During the last election, Stojanovic ran on the
list of Cedomir JovanovicQs Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP),but was not elected to the parliament.
Professor Srdjan Djordjevic was a member of the Serbian
Renewal Movement (SPO) during the 90's, but changed
parties a few years ago and became a member of DHSS.
Djordjevic was also a judge of the Constitutional Court
in 2006.

DIPLOMAS FROM SERBIA NOW IN QUESTION
--------------

10. (U) As a consequence of these allegations, local
press reports that the Greek Ministry of Education has
decided to put a freeze on recognition of diplomas from
Serbian universities after discovering a number of
false diplomas that Greek students brought home from
Serbia.


11. (U) Dean Kovacevic, of the Belgrade university,
described Greece's move as an "unpleasant overreaction"
to a case that is an exception. Local media reported
him as saying that Belgrade University has processes in
place to check corruption and expel anyone guilty of
giving or receiving bribes before police get involved.
To date, there have been no public cases of professors
or students being expelled or diplomas annulled at
Belgrade University, indicating that the university is
extraordinarily clean, that its disciplinary procedures
are effective, or that the current system is not
working in catching corruption.


12. (U) The police, in conjunction with the Office of
the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime, have been
targeting corruption in higher education in recent
years. In 2006, police arrested the dean and deputy
dean of the private Faculty of Dentistry in Pancevo for
issuing false official documents and for tax evasion.
They are charged with taking more than EUR 1 million
from students. In November 2005, the police arrested

BELGRADE 00000303 003 OF 003


three employees from the Belgrade University Faculty of
Dentistry for corruption and mediation in receiving
bribes. At the beginning of 2006, the director of the
College of Nursing in Cuprija and his associates were
dismissed for abuse of their official positions,
although it is not clear that the activity involved
selling grades.

COMMENT
--------------

13. (U) The increasing number of arrests of public
officials on corruption allegations is a positive
development. These arrests have occurred in several
different instutions: not just in education, but also
in the Supreme Court, Commercial Courts, Customs, even
the toll operation of the highway department. There
have been no convictions to date, and time will tell
whether Serbia is serious about its anti-corruption
initiatives. But the recognition by the police
director that USG anti-corruption assistance is
producing tangible results illustrates the value of
sustaining Embassy programming in this area.

POLT