Paunovic denies receiving salary after closing an institution in Kosovo

2026-07-25 19:01:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Serbia's Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Snezhana Paunovic, said on July 25 that it is "a blatant lie" to claim that she received a salary for three and a half years as director of the Pharmaceutical Institution of Peja in Kosovo, even though this institution was closed by decision of the Serbian Government.

Paunovic reacted to the Danas newspaper regarding the Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) article, which said that this data was based on the analysis of public documents submitted by Paunovic himself.

She said it is "a lie that someone is spreading to lynch me."

"Do you really think there is someone in the Serbian state so powerful that he can close an institution with his own signature and continue to receive a salary from the Serbian budget, without the entire system noticing? This is on the same level as the 'news' that North Korea has won the World Cup," Paunovic said.

Paunovic did not explain why, in the public documents on income and assets, which she had submitted to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption in Serbia, she had declared that she was receiving a salary as the acting director of this institution until 2025, when she was appointed a minister in the Serbian Government.

The minister, who had previously caused strong reactions in Kosovo and the European Union with the statement that if she had been at the head of state in 1998 she would have "ethnically cleansed" Kosovo, also did not provide an explanation for the public documents showing that in 2021, in her capacity as acting director of the Pharmaceutical Institution of Peja, she had herself submitted the request for the deletion of this institution from the register.

That the Pharmaceutical Institution of Peja, headquartered in Gorazhdec, no longer exists, was confirmed to Radio Free Europe by Radio Gorazhdec journalist Damjan Portiq.

By analyzing the reports that Paunovic had submitted to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty found that during the 11 years that, according to official data, she headed the Pharmaceutical Institution of Peja, she received around 146,000 euros in salary from the Serbian budget./Rel