Momir Škopelja, an employee of the Regulatory Agency for Energy and Regulated Utilities, was fined 20 percent of his salary in that institution because he sent a letter to members of the Legislative and Economic Committees with objections to the draft Energy Law, thereby calling into question citizens' trust in that Agency.
This is stated in the Decision, a copy of which was delivered by Škopelja to the MPs who are members of the Economy Committee.
He confirmed to "Vijesti" that he was punished for the letter, and that he contacted the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution about the decision. He said that he did not deny that he sent the letter to the deputies, but that he did so as a citizen and that he believes that this cannot be a basis for punishment, and that the information presented in that letter is not a secret, but has been published in the Agency's reports on its website and in the Official Gazette.
Škopelja, who was the first employee and former head of this Agency, stated in his comments on the draft law at the beginning of March that it would shift the regulatory period for determining the regulatory allowed revenue (the price of electricity for consumers) from 2026-2028 to 2027-2029, and that corrections (excess unpaid revenue from consumers) for the period 2022-2025 would be calculated (returned to consumers) only from 2027. He sent these comments on the law as a citizen.
The decision on the punishment, signed on April 17 by the Agency's executive director, Igor Telebak, stated that after the disciplinary proceedings, it was decided that Škopelja committed a serious breach of work obligations under Article 42, point 18 of the Rulebook on Labor Relations and Responsibilities of Employees of the Regulatory Agency for Energy and Regulated Utilities, by publicly interpreting data and information from or about the Agency, which called into question citizens' trust in the work of the Agency and led them to gain a wrong impression about the work of the Agency.
The decision on the penalty also states that the allegations from his letter were published in the article "Vijesti" - "They are delaying CGES from returning 100 million to consumers", to which the Agency responded in the article "REGAGEN: It was not possible to predict the growth of CGES's revenues, consumers will not be harmed".
The explanation of the decision on the fine stated that Škopelja called into question the trust of citizens in the work of the Agency as well as in gaining a wrong impression about the work of the Agency with his statements in the letter to the deputies: that the Agency "approved a higher regulatory income to CGES, which enabled them to earn more, which they now need to return to consumers, but this is being postponed from year to year, while the amount of money for which consumers have been damaged is growing"; that the Agency "on my initiative initiated the procedure for the differences from 2023 and has already determined the total amount of correction of 35,7 million that should be returned to consumers, but only 2025 million will be returned in 9,5, with the explanation that they would not jeopardize the operations of CGES"; that "the differences achieved in accordance with the Law should have been returned a year later - differences from 2022 to be returned in 2023, differences from 2023 to be returned in 2024, etc.", and that "the difference for 2022 has not been returned, because the Agency believes that it should decide on this only in the next regulatory period, and my initiative to return the 16 million difference from 2024 is in the procedure"; that "although there is no justification or explanation for this, it is proposed to make a new decision only in 2027, and that the current decision for 2026 be rewritten in the part relating to 2025".
Both Škopelja and Telebak ran for membership in the Council. On 3 April, the Administrative Board elected Veljko Vasiljević as the President of the Council, and Škopelja and Milica Petrović Simonović as members. This proposal was sent to the Assembly for confirmation, but some of the candidates who did not pass requested that the competition be repeated because clear criteria were not provided.
The information he provided was already public.
During the disciplinary proceedings, Škopelja stated that all the information he provided in the letter to the deputies was public, and that by providing it in his proposal, as a citizen, he could not damage the reputation of the Agency.
He also said that someone who is not employed by the Agency can have access to this data, because the text of the Agency's decision itself was published in the Official Gazette and on the Agency's website, and that the text of the decision with the explanation was published on the Agency's website during the public hearing in which he also participated.
He also stated that, on his initiative, the Agency made a decision that based on the difference in CGES revenues, 35,7 million euros should be returned to customers, but it was decided that only 2025 million would be returned to them through tariff reductions in 9,5.
The Agency states that they initiated the price correction procedure on their own initiative, even before his request.
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