Budva: Municipal utility workers threaten to strike, there is no money for salaries

Employees of the Budva Municipal Company, primarily in the Cleanliness work unit, are threatening to strike if the November salary is not paid by the end of the week.

This was confirmed by the "News" in the Board of Directors of that municipal company, which has been in complete chaos for a month, since the acting director Predrag Drago Ivanović was dismissed.

Although the workers threatened to start a strike at the beginning of the week, it was foiled after, as unofficially confirmed by "Vijesti", managers in the company loyal to Ivanović convinced the employees to give up, promising to pay their wages.

However, there is no money in the account neither for the November, nor for the December salary, nor for the winter vacation, because the utility company pays the salary months ago by waiting for financial injections from the Municipality, which transfers money to them. The problem in the company is that the office of the dismissed director is still locked, the company's seals are "lost" as well as the operating book, and the members of the Board of Directors and the newly appointed acting director Ilija Gigović are prevented from entering.

Gigović is the only one with the right to sign, because his signature was deposited in the banks after his name was entered in the Central Register of Business Entities.

"We as the Board of Directors have done everything according to the law, however, since November 11, when Ivanovic was dismissed, obstructions have started, then the disappearance of seals, official books and finally the locking of documents and the office and the inability to access Acting Director Gigović and the Board of Directors. We expect that the situation will be even worse if the competent institutions do not take the initiative and solve this problem. We do not have concrete information from the police and the prosecutor's office as to whether they have taken any action after the reports we submitted," the Board of Directors told "Vijesti".

The Board of Directors also expects the decision of the Basic Court in Kotor on their request to adopt a temporary measure, so that the acting director and members of the board can have access to the office, the company's seal, the official book and documentation.

"We expect the Court to resolve this situation in these days. Otherwise, if this continues, the workers will not be able to receive salaries or winter leave. We have appealed to all competent institutions to help solve the problems faced by the utility company as quickly as possible", the Board of Directors stated.

The draft budget for 6,5 prepared by the administration of the current President of the Municipality also testifies that the Municipality will continue to be open-handed towards the Communal Enterprise, which is a company with limited liability and whose revenues are almost 2025 million euros, and the company operates at a loss. Milo Božović, which stipulates that as much as 2,9 million euros will be paid from the city coffers for the company, of which 1,2 million are related to the disposal of special waste.

That Komunalno is in a difficult situation is also confirmed by the financial statement, which this company submitted to the Tax Administration in April, that last year the company operated with a loss of 916 thousand euros.

"Vijesti" previously announced that a series of criminal charges had been filed by both sides.

After the Board of Directors filed the report, the Kotor Prosecutor's Office is investigating whether there are elements of a criminal offense in that a few days before the election, 24 workers were employed permanently in the company, despite the moratorium on employment brought by the board, dismissing acting director Predarag Ivanovic.

Prosecutors in Kotor became interested after the president and member of the Board of Directors Raško Radulović and Veselinka Kalezić filed criminal charges against the dismissed acting director Ivanović, accusing him of taking the company's official seals, official book and employing him before the local elections.

The dismissed Ivanović countered with a criminal complaint, which he filed with the head of the Special Police Department, Predrag Šuković, against the now dismissed Vice-President of the Municipality, Jasna Dokić, the president and members of the Board of Directors, Raško Radulović, Veselinka Kalezić and Goran Doljanica, as well as the newly appointed acting director Ilija Gigović, and the authorized employee of the Tax Administration - Central Register of Tax Subjects in Podgorica, due to, as he stated, suspicions that they committed the criminal offense of abuse of official position and falsification of a document.

He accused Dokić of carrying out his dismissal at the behest of the New Serbian Democracy.