Scandal in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU): Hired a Starlet as Executive Secretary

Starlets have taken over Serbia and open almost all doors, even those of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU), reports the Patria news agency.

As Serbian media reported, this is confirmed by the example of Katarina Smiljanić, who, instead of appearing in a reality show, ended up in SANU as an executive secretary.

To make matters worse, she came to this position with a hairdressing diploma and experience as a roulette hostess in a casino, and the recommendation for her employment, despite a hiring freeze, was her close friendship with Budimir Lončar, the director of SANU, outside whose door she sits.

A source from SANU told the media that this staffing decision caused real shock among employees and a large number of academicians, who wonder whether the director is gambling with the reputation of the Serbian temple of science for personal interests.

- Besides the fact that the girl does not have the qualifications for that position, as she is a hairdresser by education, her revealing photos adorn almost all social networks. To make matters worse, Lončar changed her fixed-term contract to an indefinite one. What opinion will our foreign associates, academicians, and the Serbian public have when you have placed a starlet as the first associate of the SANU director - explains this source.

He says it is obvious that the fashion of reality shows has also engulfed the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

That the findings are accurate was indirectly confirmed by answering the phone in the office of the SANU director, precisely Katarina Smiljanić.

But she did not want to comment on the details of her employment.

- I work as the executive secretary of the SANU director, but for all details about my employment, you must ask the PR service - she told the media.

Several academicians confirmed that the hairdresser works at SANU. They claim that no one informs the SANU Assembly about this.