The highest salary in December last year among 12 state-owned companies was received by Vukadin Stojanović, CEO of Air Montenegro. He earned a total of 4.685,02 euros.
The final net amount of Stojanović's salary was increased by 1.000 euros, as stated in the explanation, because it was "defined as such for a person appointed to the position of Accountable Manager in the Company in accordance with regulatory requirements."
In terms of salary, Stojanović is followed by Ivan Asanović, executive director of the Montenegrin Electricity Transmission System (CGES), who earned 2024 euros in the last month of 3.900,42, including a 500 euro allowance.
CGES points out that "the remuneration of the executive director was determined in accordance with the "Compensation Policy of the Montenegrin Electric Transmission System AD", and that the item from the payroll - other remuneration was paid in accordance with Decision No. 10-D/24-3435/1 of December 18.12.2024, XNUMX, which was paid to all employees and persons as stated in the Decision".
The CGES Decision states that New Year's bonuses in the amount of 500 euros net were paid to all employees of the Montenegrin Electricity Transmission System AD who were engaged under an indefinite employment contract, a fixed-term employment contract, as well as to workers engaged through the Agency for the Assignment of Employees. New Year's bonuses were also paid to persons who were employed by CGES and who terminated their employment in 2024 for any reason.
Of the remaining executive directors, the December compensation, also of 500 euros, was paid only in "Monteput". The Executive Director of "Monteput", Milan Ljiljanić, was paid the amount of 2024 euros for net earnings for December 3.390,77, including the compensation of 500 euros, which was received by all employees of this state-owned company in December 2024.
Boris Mihajlović, executive director of "Barska plovidba", received a salary of 2.741,50 euros in December last year.
Zoran Kovaćević, executive director of the Institute for Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Rheumatology "Dr Simo Milošević" in Igalo, received 2024 euros in December 2.235,24, and his colleague Ilija Pješčić, executive director of "Luka Bar" in the same month earned 1.926,43 euros.
The December salary of Miljan Ivanović, executive director of Montenegro Bonus, was 1.966,17 euros. Josip Đurašković, executive director of the Post Office, received a personal income of 2.404,01 euros for the same period.
The salary of Krsto Radović, acting executive director of the "Regional Water Supply Company of the Montenegrin Coast" for the month of December 2024, amounted to 3,367,89 euros in net amount, including the starting salary and a bonus for past work.
Nemanja Laković, executive director of the Pljevlja Coal Mine, earned 3.505,23 euros in December, and Ćamil Hodžić, now former executive director of HTP "Ulcinjska rivijera", received 3.277,56 euros for the same month.
In RTCG's response, they only stated the amount of the gross personal income of the General Director Boris Raonić, which amounted to 4.572,49. The explanation emphasizes that the "calculation sheet contains data related to the calculation coefficient of the fixed part of the salary, past work, reduction of gross salary based on personal income tax, other deductions and the employee's net salary, after corrections based on suspensions have been made, and they represent personal data for the use of which the consent of the person whose data is being processed is required."
The General and Legal Affairs Department of RTCG, accordingly, as it is emphasized, has "anonymized various types of deductions on the pay slip, i.e. suspended them in order not to violate their privacy and right to protection of personal data."
It seems that RTCG went a little overboard with "anonymization", so the pay slip does not show how much net salary Boris Raonić actually received in December.
The RTCG Council, as a reminder, adopted the employment contract of Director General Boris Raonić in early December, who was re-elected to that position on August 31. According to the employment contract, Raonić will receive 1.867,5 euros per month, plus two average net salaries at RTCG from the previous month, which is an additional 1.600 euros, as the average salary at that media outlet is around 800 euros, for a total of around 3.600 euros each month.
In March of this year, the Government of Montenegro announced that Boris Raonić had the highest net salary in the country in February - 4.042,56 euros. After that, Raonić himself asked the RTCG Council to reduce his salary, so that he would not receive an allowance of three, but only two average salaries in RTCG. He received a variable allowance on top of his earnings of three average salaries every month.
The Director General of Radio and Television of Montenegro earned 2023 euros in 47.587,56, and his basic salary was 3.965 euros, which is almost five times the average salary in the country.
Raonić submitted this data to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption in its regular annual report for 2023.
SPI's requests for December earnings of executive directors were not responded to by Air Montenegro, Plantaže, and the Airport of Montenegro, while the Electric Power Industry of Montenegro and CEDIS rejected requests for information of public importance.
"Vijesti" obtained data on the salaries of executive directors of the largest state-owned companies with the help of MANS's "Ask Institutions" application.
Institute Alternative: Non-transparent income
An analysis by the Institute Alternativa, published at the end of August last year, states that the contracts of executive directors of state-owned enterprises that were obtained indicate different practices in terms of how salaries, bonuses and severance pay are defined. The range of different calculation mechanisms, contractual definitions and amounts testifies to a network of non-transparent remuneration, the absence of established standards for the calculation method and measurement of the complexity of these jobs, concludes the Institute Alternativa.
A particular problem with regard to the transparency of management remuneration, the Alternative Institute analysis points out, is the unavailability of contract annexes. Once concluded, director contracts are often changed, and annexes mainly redefine salaries, work coefficients and severance pay.
In most cases, the Alternative Institute points out, the basic salaries of directors are linked to the average salaries of employees in those companies. Most often, these are three average salaries (EPCG, CEDIS, Regional Waterworks, Radio-difuzni centar, Marina Bar, Morsko dobro…), with exceptions such as the directors of CETI and the Montenegrin Solidarity Housing Construction Fund, who have an income of two and a half average net salaries in the company, and Barska plovidba with 2,2 average net salaries in the company. It also happens that the calculation basis is determined differently, as the average salary in the previous year or month (EPCG). In certain companies, the amount of the average net salary at the state level is used to define the salary of the executive director (Montenegroturist – in the amount of one, BELEN – three average salaries, Castello Montenegro – from one and a half to two average salaries).
Regarding bonus policy, the findings conclude, there is no uniform practice for their determination, calculation, payment conditions, or approval methods.
According to the employment contracts we had access to, directors of the Investment and Development Fund (IDF), the Coastal Zone, RTCG, the Innovation Fund and the Science and Technology Park are entitled to bonuses. The bonus of the executive director of RTCG amounts to a maximum of two average net salaries in that public company. Directors of the IDF and the Coastal Zone are entitled to bonuses “in accordance with the achieved positive business results”. The director of the Innovation Fund is entitled to cash rewards, however, the contract does not define the amount or conditions. The granting of a bonus to the director of the Science and Technology Park requires the consent of the Government, which is not the case with other companies.
The Institute of Alternatives emphasizes that it is necessary for the Government, through the new Law on Salaries of Public Sector Employees, to establish clear guidelines for the manner of concluding and amending contracts with executive directors of state-owned enterprises, salary limits, a uniform method of calculation, bonus models that will correspond to the performance of the enterprise, and to resolve the issue of determining the appropriate amount of severance pay in the event of contract termination.
According to the Alternative Institute, the current complex network of jurisdictions and compensation calculations allows too much discretionary authority to both boards of directors and the Government itself in arbitrarily determining the values of coefficients for individual companies. Neither the Government nor the MPs have yet demonstrated in action that they want to address the systemic problems in the operation of state-owned companies.
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