The Ministry of Interior funds The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies, but does not employ its graduates

The Development Strategy of the Ministry of Interior for the 2015-2018 lists investing in higher education as one of the its priorities. The Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies was established as an institution for the purpose of police training and now has more than 2,500 active students. Although one budget student costs citizens of Serbia about five thousand euros per year, and as many as twenty thousand euros for the entire schooling process, KPA graduates rarely secure employment in the MoI. It is not possible to gather the data on how many graduates of KPA are employed in the MoI because neither the MoI nor KPA keep records on it. Moreover, because of the discordant codebook of the National Employment Service, it is not even possible to find out how many graduates of KPA are waiting for a job in the police. The last time a larger number of graduates entered employment with the the MoI was after the graduates had protested in October 2014. According to current practice, the Ministry of Interior employs staff whose training requires additional resources to be invested, instead of KPA graduates, who are forced to work as waiters and bartenders even though the Ministry of Interior was the one to train them. The end result is that students waste their time, and the state wastes its money.

At the end of the analysis, the author proposes two alternatives for the the MoI in order to solve the problem of the KPA, ensuring expedient spending of public funds. One solution would be to cease state funding of KPA. Another possible explanation is that the the MoI systematically ensures employment of KPA graduates.

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union and Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Serbian Government in the framework of the project „PRO-CURE: Strengthening Civil Scrutiny of Procurement Performance in the Security Sector“.