SDT returned the files on disputed fees to the Institute, it is unclear whether there is an investigation

The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) returned the case files to the Basic Court in Podgorica following a lawsuit filed by three members of the former commission of the Employment Agency against that institution, from whom they are demanding 200 euros each for two years of work in the commission, so yesterday the hearing continued for a short time.

In November of last year, the judge in this proceeding, Jelena Anđelić, reviewed the case files at the SDT, with the aim, as she said at the time, for the prosecution to check whether there are grounds for the commission of a criminal offense in the actions that are the subject of this dispute.

Yesterday, when asked by one of the former members of the commission who filed the lawsuit against Stanko Laković, she said that she received the files from the prosecution on April 24, but that she did not receive any additional letter from the SDT with them, so she does not know whether the prosecution opened investigation into the matter.

In other proceedings, four more members of this commission filed similar lawsuits, and the total compensation they are seeking is about one and a half million euros. It is disputed that the experts in previous proceedings considered that the members have the right to compensation for each solved request of the beneficiary for subsidy, so such compensation amounted to 15 thousand euros per month.

The former director of the Institute, Vukica Jelić, who formed the commission, said that the members did this work in line with their regular duties and during regular working hours, that they could receive compensation at the end of the six-month period, and that it was not paid monthly. could amount to more than 108 euros per month.

At that time, she considered the request of seven former members of the community incredible and tasteless, especially because they are asking for one and a half million euros to participate in a project to achieve employment for people with disabilities, in which the incentive measures were worth a total of one and a half million euros.

Yesterday, Judge Anđelić delivered to the parties in the proceedings the supplementary report of expert witness Jovan Varajić. The lawyer of the former members of the commission, Nikola Vukčević, said that he can immediately respond to the expert's report, while the representative of the Institute, Nebojša Batrićević, said that he had just received the report and that he needs an additional deadline for familiarization, which is why he is requesting a postponement of the hearing. The judge accepted that and scheduled the continuation of the hearing for June 14.

She clarified yesterday that she did not reject the Institute's request to hear the former director of the Institute Vukica Jelić as a witness, but that she postponed that decision until the hearing of the expert witness was completed.

Yesterday, Batrićević again requested that Jelić be called as a witness, telling the judge that she had said "there is no need" to his proposal at an earlier hearing. He also stated that there was no need to send the case files to the SDT in order to determine the possible legality of the decision made by the Institute, which does not mean that there is no basis for this case to end up in the SDT in order to determine the possible responsibility of other actors.

Judge Anđelić said that at the next hearing she would make a decision on whether it was necessary to question the former director, to which Vukčević asked that their two witnesses, Ivana Sekulić and Bojana Vuković, be heard.

Laković said that he has nothing against ex-director Jelić testifying in this dispute as well, stating "so let her tell me to my face that our request is tasteless". He also said that he was not clear about the Institute's current position that it was unnecessary to send the files to the SDT, when the recently dismissed president of the Institute's Management Board, Dejan Vojvodić, insisted on calling the prosecution.

Vojvodić previously requested that the SDT be involved in the case, stating that this is necessary because of all the actors involved in this case, not only the maker of the contested decision. He was replaced two weeks ago, and before that, at the meeting of the Board of Directors, he requested that proceedings be initiated against the committee members who awarded benefits to the participants of the professional rehabilitation program for persons with disabilities who were not entitled to them. According to the minutes, it was first established that 212 thousand euros were spent for these purposes, and then that "only" 31 thousand were disputed.