Former Vice President of the Municipality of Budva Jasna Dokić She was acquitted of violating the Law on the Prevention of Corruption because, as sued by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, she failed to report within 30 days that her position had ceased.
This is the decision of the judge of the Budva Minor Offences Court. Katarina Vujačić Vuksanović which "Vijesti" had insight into.
With this, Dokić continued to prove before the Montenegrin courts that she was first arrested by the former mayor of the municipality. Milo Bozovic At the beginning of December last year, she was illegally removed from the position of vice president, to the point that, in a politically motivated decision, the Election and Appointments Committee of the Budva Municipal Assembly denied her the compensation she is entitled to by law.
"Jasna Dokić is acquitted of the offense that on January 4, as a former public official, former Vice President of the Municipality, she committed a violation by failing to notify the Agency within 30 days of the termination of her office, after her office ended on December 2, 2024," the ruling by Judge Vujačić Vuksanović states.
Dokić stated before the court, as stated in the decision, that her position did not end on December 2nd of last year.
"Dokić explained that the decision to dismiss the office was made by the President of the Municipality of Budva, who, according to Article 59 of the Law on Local Self-Government, was obliged to submit it to the Municipal Assembly for decision within three months from the date of the decision, which was not done, so the decision ceased to be valid. Dokić stated that the position of Vice-President is related to the position of President of the Municipality, and that in that sense her position ceased on February 2, 2025, when Božović resigned, and that in relation to that date she timely submitted a report that was submitted to the Agency on April 11 of this year," the Misdemeanor Court's explanation of the decision reads.
The former vice president's legal representative also submitted to the court the Administrative Court's verdict of July 2 this year, which accepted Dokić's appeal and annulled the decision on her dismissal issued by Milo Božović.
Božović, who has been in the Supška Remand Prison since April 13, 2023, on charges of being part of a drug-police clan, was dismissed by Dokić on December 2 last year and on the same day appointed the leader of the political group "Budva our city", now the current mayor, as vice-president of the municipality. Nikola Jovanović.
Dokić was violently thrown out of the office that morning, insulted and harassed.
She fell out of favor with Božović after she left the political group "Budva Our City" accusing Jovanović of secretly negotiating after the May local elections to form a government with the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).
In her complaint to the Administrative Court, Dokić stated that, pursuant to the Law on Local Self-Government, the Mayor appoints and dismisses the Deputy Mayor with the consent of the Municipal Assembly, and thus the then Mayor Milo Božović exceeded his powers and regulated legal relations for which he was not authorized.
"According to the Administrative Court, the Mayor of the Municipality, without legal basis, exceeded his legal powers and indisputably took over the responsibilities of the Municipal Assembly without having any basis for doing so, and thus violated the principle of legality in terms of both formal and substantive legality," the Administrative Court's ruling states, among other things.
The verdict also states that Božović Dokić "did not determine the scope of her authority in performing the function of vice president at all", and that there were no grounds for her dismissal from the position of vice president, as the Municipality of Budva referred to in the decision.
Recently, Dokić managed to fight for her legally due compensation after the termination of her position, which was denied to her on political grounds by the Municipal Assembly's Election and Appointments Committee.
The Board violated the law by refusing in February this year to award official compensation to former Municipal President Milo Božović and his deputy Jasna Dokić, even though this is a right clearly stipulated in the Law on Salaries of Public Sector Employees.
Only after the order of the State Administrative Inspection, whose action was requested by Dokić, did the Board retroactively issue decisions on the payment of compensation for both former officials, from the date of termination of their mandates, February 6 of this year. Citizens will also have to pay additional interest, due to the fact that decisions on the payment of official compensation for a period of less than a year after the termination of their mandates were not immediately issued to these officials.
On August 22, the Assembly Committee adopted resolutions confirming that the compensation will be paid from February 6, 2025 to February 6, 2026, in the amount of the salary that Božović and Dokić had in the last month of their office.
The opposition in the local parliament accused the ruling majority of setting a precedent, ignoring the laws of Montenegro and of putting the Municipality in a situation where it had to pay additional obligations due to political calculations.
Dokić continued to prove before the Montenegrin courts that she was first illegally removed from the position of vice-president by the former detained mayor Milo Božović at the beginning of December last year, and then by a politically motivated decision by the Election and Appointments Committee of the Budva Municipal Assembly, she was denied the compensation she was entitled to by law.
The former vice president's legal representative also submitted to the court the Administrative Court's verdict of July 2 this year, which accepted Dokić's appeal and annulled the decision on her dismissal issued by Milo Božović.
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