According to the decision on rebalancing the budget for this year, which today at the session of the Municipal Assembly (SO) of Kolašin caused several hours of discussion, operational expenses amount to almost 2 million, while capital costs are only 848 euros.
This means that the operating budget, compared to the original plan, has increased by 21,4%, and the capital budget by only 2%.
The executive authority did not have time to prepare the revenue and expenditure plan for the following year, so instead, a decision was made on temporary financing of the Municipality.
"The reasons for making the decision to rebalance are the new organization and way of working of the local administration. On the receipt side, there are significant increases in the positions of personal income tax, fees for the use of goods of public interest, fees for the arrangement and construction of construction land, donations and transfers, from of which the most significant increase is the transfer from the equalization fund, by 434.000 euros. The most significant is the reduction of receipts based on real estate tax by 117.506 euros, compared to the original plan. The reason is poor collection, due to the lack of personnel capacity and insufficient application of forced collection mechanisms," explained are from the executive branch.
Gross wages and contributions to the employer's account are increased by 55.00 euros.
The increase, as explained, was due to the formation of new bodies, as well as due to compensation of wages to former local officials and heads of bodies whose mandate ended.
This money will also finance the salaries of eight officials, who, according to the President of the Municipality Milosav Bato Bulatović, were returned to work by executive decisions of the Administrative Court.
The opposition had numerous objections to the rebalancing, so Aleksandar Dožić from the Democratic Front (DF) even asked for that decision to be withdrawn from the agenda.
Željka Vuksanović, councilor of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), asked Bulatović why there was an increase in wages in the Security Service by almost 35.000 euros.
She was also interested in what is the reason for the workers returning to work, paying for it with citizens' money, when the Supreme Court abolished the basis for their return to work.
Bulatović said that the former government, among other things, left a debt of 80.000 to Vodovod and the compensation fund of around 30.000 euros.
The President of the Municipality, responding to councilor Bojan Zeković (SDP), said that he never said what was stated a few months ago in the statement of the OO Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) that invoices of several tens of thousands of euros arrive at the address of the Municipality every day.
"It turned out that only four invoices from that period were due and none with that amount. Someone from your OO is grossly deceiving the public, if what the Secretary of Finance provided us with is correct," Zeković retorted.
He also criticized the fact that capital expenditures were increased far less than the operating part of the budget.
Zaković reminded that the former government "ensured budgetary discipline", even in the situation they found themselves with the multi-year blockade of the municipality's accounts.
Criticizing the fact that no decision on the budget for the next year has been prepared, but only a decision on temporary financing for the first three months, Democrat councilor Vladimir Martinović asked Bulatović to promise that there are no plans to increase expenditures.
"Promise in front of councilors and journalists that the reason for this is not an increase in expenditures due to an increase in the number of jobs, officials and their assistants in local administration. You are the only government in Montenegro that is proud of the fact that, at the end of December, it is rebalancing for this, and not the budget proposal for the next year. Promise to respect the public administration optimization plan, which was adopted by the Government. If you promise that, we will try to justify you for not having a budget for the next year." said Marinović.
Bulatović said that "everything the executive power does will be transparent and in compliance with the law."
Dragan Bulatović, Secretary of Finance, said that there were many problems, which were also the reason for the budget not being passed.
"Since the seventh month, nothing has been booked in the Finance Secretariat, because the accountant is on sick leave. Kolašin does not have an accountant. Since October, we have been making quarterly reports for the Ministry of Finance, so we have lost a lot of time there, especially when it comes to the municipal budget, where unrealistically presented data. As the decision on the budget is a serious task, we did not want to do it overnight," he explained.
Martinović informed the councilors that the executive power had a plan to propose an increase in fees for presidents and board members in companies and institutions founded by the Municipality.
As he explained, the plan was to increase the fees for members to 120, and for presidents to 150 euros, and that after his opposition at the parliamentary committee, it was abandoned.
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