In the past five years, the Association of Pensioners of Podgorica has paid vulnerable pensioners 187 euros less than was required according to its regulations and dedicated payments forwarded to them by the Association of Pensioners, according to the Association's financial reports obtained by "Vijesti".
According to the acts of the Union of Pensioners, 35 percent of the money collected from the membership fee is paid to associations at the municipal level for the distribution of humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable pensioners. The membership fee is 40 or 60 cents, depending on the amount of the pension, and has been deducted monthly for 28 to 30 thousand pensioners over the past five years. This money was automatically rejected by the Professional Service of the PIO Fund and paid to the Union of Pensioners, which later distributed it according to its rulebook and internal decisions.
Thus, 10 percent of the total payment was left to the leadership of the Association for their expenses, 45 percent was for the activities of local associations, 35 percent for humanitarian aid to vulnerable pensioners, seven percent for sports recreation... These percentages could only be changed by decisions of the Board of Directors. of the Alliance.
They received 332 thousand for help, distributed 134.500 euros
According to financial reports, the Association of Pensioners of Podgorica received 2016 thousand euros from the Association, and indirectly from membership fees from the PIO Fund, for the five years from 2020 to 322 for the distribution of humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable pensioners. However, only 134,5 thousand euros were spent for that purpose, while 187,5 thousand remained unspent and were transferred to the following years, when it became difficult to monitor its further consumption.
In not a single year, the management of the association did not spend even an approximate sum of the money allocated from the membership fee for these needs. Thus, in 2017, the association received 66.337 euros for this purpose, of which it distributed only 19.880 euros as humanitarian aid to the vulnerable. The most was distributed in 2019, when they received 63.101 euros to help the poor, and distributed 43.400 euros.
According to the data of the Association itself, there are a little over seven thousand pensioners in Podgorica whose monthly income was less than 180 euros, that is, officially below the poverty threshold. If ten euros were distributed annually to them, on average the entire amount intended for humanitarian aid would be spent.
The "Vijesti" source states that the money intended for the distribution of humanitarian aid could not remain undistributed while there are vulnerable pensioners, but that the problem is that most of them do not even know that there is money for this purpose, which creates room for its misuse.
The prosecution launched an investigation
On behalf of a group of pensioners from Podgorica Ivan Grdinić in June 2020, submitted a criminal complaint against the president of the Podgorica association to the prosecutor's office Ilija Stanisic and his associates due to the well-founded suspicion that, as stated, they disposed of money for humanitarian needs in a manipulative and illegal manner, that they concealed and approved the unintended spending of money on pensioners' clubs, presented incorrect and false data in the income and expenditure reports for 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
According to "Vijesti" information, the prosecutor's office initiated an investigation regarding this report and hired a financial expert, after whose findings they will decide on the initiation of the investigation.
Stanišić claimed in response to earlier accusations that pensioners' money is not spent in a suspicious manner, that he never received a complaint from Grdinić, and that all representatives of local associations receive reports on how the money is spent.
However, the criminal report states that several representatives of local associations who do not agree with the decisions of the municipal management requested to see the business books based on the Association's Statute several times, but they were never granted this.
In that application, it was stated, among other things, that the money that was officially distributed for humanitarian aid was distributed to hands in cash with or without signatures, as well as that they were not allowed to see the documentation about that distribution.
However, the report to the prosecutor's office at the time did not affect the work of the Association of Pensioners because, according to the report made in 2020, they received EUR 2021 from membership fees for humanitarian aid to pensioners, while they spent only EUR 61.247 for that purpose.
In June, the Commission of the PIO Fund determined the misuse of money that the associations received from the budget for social assistance to pensioners and housing construction for pensioners who are tenants.
Questions about money mention a bullet?
Part of the report against Stanišić refers to jeopardizing security with a threat, because at a meeting for several members who asked for reports and insight into the association's business books, he said: "I will string you all together with one bullet."
As stated, that meeting took place in September 2019 at the initiative of the president of the Association of Pensioners, Branko Vešović, in order to solve problems in the functioning of the Association.
In the application, it is written that the representatives of the local pensioners' association Zabjela asked questions about the manner of disposing and spending money from membership fees and housing construction, after which Stanišić allegedly sent the threat.
Even after that meeting, the disgruntled members of the association did not get access to the business books.
Several officials spent over 36.000 euros annually on their work
According to the amendments to the Statute of the Association of Pensioners, Ilija Stanišić combined several functions, so that he was also the president of the Board of Directors, as well as the president of the Assembly of the association. So he presided over the bodies that propose, appoint and elect the financial commission that compiles the report, but also the Assembly to which it is accountable.
In the reports themselves, as they were compiled, one can see more illogic, but also that more money was spent on the fees of a few members of the association's management than on the help of thousands of pensioners.
For example, in 2018, 65 euros were distributed for humanitarian aid to pensioners out of the 20.730 allocated and specifically received, while in the same year, 12.360 euros were spent on the work of the president of the Association and the secretary, 11.111 euros were spent on the compensation of members of the community, on the costs of holding the sessions of the Assembly and 10.454 euros to the Board of Directors (members' attendance fees)... Similar sums apply to other years as well.
In 2017, EUR 19.880 was distributed for humanitarian aid to pensioners, out of the planned EUR 66, while EUR 36 was spent on work allowances and management meetings that year.
Between three and a half and four thousand euros were spent annually on phone costs, that is, the monthly costs for the phone exceeded 300 euros.
Although the Association claimed that they did not lose court cases due to the illegal division of apartments, i.e. that there were no legally binding ones, the report shows that executors were forced to collect considerable sums of money every year due to lost court cases. Thus, in 2018, the executors collected 17.440 euros, in 2019, 13.332 euros, and in 2020, 9.371 euros.
Bonus video:
