About twenty days ago, the Ministry of Culture and Information dissolved the Book Purchase Competition Commission with a brief explanation that a conflict of interest had been discovered, and that a new one had been chosen.
The Ministry did not explain what kind of conflict of interest it is, nor how it was discovered, nor how it is possible for such a thing to happen, nor what is the fate of the money reserved in advance from the budget for the purchase of books. It was not said whether the decisions of the first commission were annulled, so this new one will do everything from the beginning, nor how long it will last.
Librarians and publishers said this meant there would be no book buybacks this year. That this has never happened before, not even during a major economic crisis, and that it is a scandal. They also said that they feel humiliated by the behavior of the Ministry.
Somehow, until the change of that commission, there was hope that librarians and publishers would receive the books and money they are owed by the end of the year. But, given that it takes two months from the moment of the decision of the Ministries on the completed purchase to the payment of the money or the sending of the books, and that the end of the work of the new commission is uncertain, it is clear that nothing will come of the purchase this year.
The fact that after the mentioned announcement about the abolition of the first commission and the appointment of the second commission, the Ministry did not say a word about the purchase of the books, the interested actors of this case tried to find out why they were bothered by everything that happened to them.
It turned out that the book by Luka Miceta, a member of the commission, was submitted for purchase, that the commission approved it and even marked it with a star, which means that it is on the list of books that the commission believes should be in every library in Serbia.
(Explanation: the commission makes two lists. On one is the books that the libraries themselves choose, and on the other are those that all libraries must take, regardless of whether they need them or not. The star means the publisher is sure and the biggest gain.)
And who is to blame? The mistake is that the Ministry chose a commission with a conflict of interest, or that it did not know about it. It is not known which of the two variants is worse. The mistake is that no one from the commission reacted, if not before, then at the moment when Mičeta's book came up for voting. And of course, it is a mistake that Luka Micheta and his publisher did not warn the Ministry that their book is also applying for redemption, and that its author has no place in the commission.
The mistake was discovered by a third party, outside the Ministry and the commission, for some of his own personal reasons, but that is for another story and some other circumstances.
Currently, the October Book Fair is relevant for publishers. He was gone for two years and it is understandable that they wanted him. They said that they will almost certainly not participate this year because they did not receive the money from the purchase of books, so they do not have a stand for the fair. The book fair was announced on Tuesday, and somehow a day or two later it turned out that only a few of them would not be able to participate. And that is of course good news, it says, among other things, that books are being bought and that publishers can operate without state aid.
In short, the state has failed again.
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