The candidates for the four vacant positions on the Council of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG), which are appointed upon the proposal of the Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget, are: Srdjan Milic, Suco Orahovac, Hadži Vesna Vujošević, Ismet Hadžić, Tamara Backovic, Mladen Bojanic, Zarija Pejović i Brankica Mosurović.
They will be heard before the Committee on Economics on Monday and Tuesday as part of a consultative hearing.
According to the Law on the Central Bank of Montenegro, the Council has eight members - the Governor, three Vice-Governors and four members who are not employees of the Central Bank of Montenegro, appointed by the Parliament of Montenegro. The mandate of the Council members lasts six years and they can be appointed for a maximum of two consecutive terms.
Srđan Milić is the former leader of the Socialist People's Party (SNP) and, according to unofficial information, "Vijesti" has been nominated as a member of the Council on behalf of this party, while the candidate of the Europe Now Movement is Šućo Orahovac, who is a member of the Executive Board of the PES Podgorica City Committee and Secretary of the Secretariat for Entrepreneurship and Investment of the Capital City.
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", Ismet Hadžić is the candidate of the Bosniak Party, whose website contains information that he is a member of the Municipal Board in Rožaje, the Democrats have nominated Tamara Backović, who is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics in Podgorica, and the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) has nominated Hadži Vesna Vujošević, who previously held the position of President of the Board of Directors of the Employment Agency of Montenegro.
The candidates of the URA Movement, as "Vijesti" has learned, are Mladen Bojanić, who was the Minister of Capital Investments in the Government of Prime Minister Zdravka Krivokapića, and is now an advisor to the mayor of Budva Nikola Jovanović, then Vice-Dean for Education at the University of the Mediterranean Zarija Pejović and Brankica Mosurović, who is currently employed at the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System (CEDIS), and was previously, among other things, the Head of the Internal Audit Service at the Railway Infrastructure (ŽPCG) and the Municipality of Pljevlja.
The last time the Assembly elected four external members of the CBCG Council was in July 2018, as follows: Milorad Jovović, Nikola Milović, Ruždija Tuzović i Zorica Kalezić and thus, after a year and eight months of delay, filled that body of the supreme assembled institution with representatives elected on the proposal of the parliament. However, the CBCG Council has not been functioning in full since December 2019, when it was Zorica Kalezić elected as vice governor instead of the current governor Irene Radović, who was previously removed from the position of vice governor at the request of the then governor Radoje Žugić.
Milović resigned as a member of the Central Bank of Montenegro Council in August 2023, after being elected as a DPS MP and currently holds that position.
Milorad Jovović and Ruždija Tuzović's six-year mandate expired last July. They are still in those positions, because according to the Law on the Central Bank of Montenegro, a member of the Council whose mandate has expired continues to perform his function until a new member is appointed (Article 50a). They are also on the Audit Committee, which functions as a permanent body of the Council of the Central Bank of Montenegro.
The latest amendments to the Law on the Central Bank of Montenegro from 2023 have tightened the conditions for the election of Council members, so that candidates must have at least 10 years of work experience in the fields of economics, banking, finance or law. Until then, no minimum years of work experience were prescribed as a condition for any member of the Council of the Central Bank of Montenegro, but it was only prescribed that the Governor and Vice Governor must have at least five years of work experience in management positions in the aforementioned fields. At that time, the Ministry of Finance, which was the proposer of these solutions, clarified that they were adopted based on the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF recommendation was also that the Council should have eight members (the Governor, three Vice Governors and four members who are not employed by the Central Bank of Montenegro), and the previous solution that, upon Montenegro's accession to the European Union (EU), the supreme monetary institution should have five members - the Governor and four Vice Governors, was deleted.
The Assembly did not elect a new president last month. Gordana Kalezić i Milan Remiković for vice governors, who were proposed by Governor Irena Radović in accordance with the Law.
"Since Gordana Kalezić and Milan Remiković were proposed as vice governors of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG) until today, we have not heard a single reason why two high-quality and credible candidates should not receive support in the Parliament of Montenegro. I myself am surprised that they were not elected," the CBCG Governor recently told "Vijesti".
Radović did not want to comment on speculation that her candidates did not receive support from part of the "For the Future of Montenegro" coalition because she did not propose a candidate close to them for one seat, and that they did not receive votes from Europe because it is hindering the Development Bank project, which does not yet have a license from the supreme monetary institution to conduct payment transactions.
The Law on the Central Bank only stipulates that candidates for vice governors are proposed by the governor and elected by the Assembly, but not the situation when these candidates are not elected, or whether the governor can nominate them again, whether she must seek other candidates and within what deadline.
One position of Vice Governor has been vacant since February 2023, when the resignation was confirmed. Miodrag Radonjić in that position, To Nikola Fabris The six-year term expired in March 2023. Fabris continues to hold that position pursuant to Article 50a of the Law on the Central Bank of Montenegro.
Zorica Kalezić's six-year term expires in December this year.
A member of the Central Bank of Montenegro Council receives compensation for that position. Ruždija Hodžić's latest asset card, which is available on the website of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, states that last year he received 1.700 euros per month in net amount.
A member of the Council cannot be a member of a political party.
According to the Law on the Central Bank of Montenegro (Article 51, paragraph 2), a member of the Council may not be a member of a political organization, a member of the Parliament, a member of the Government or a person who performs any other function or duty to which he or she was appointed by the Parliament or the Government, except for a function or duty in international financial institutions, and may not be a person who performs a function or duty in local self-government bodies or bodies of trade union organizations.
Article 52, paragraph 2 defines - A member of the Council shall submit a written statement to the Council on the facts referred to in Article 51, paragraphs 2 to 5 of this Law, within 15 days of
on the day of appointment as a member of the Council and once a year by the end of February in the current year for the previous year.
When President Filip Vujanović nominated Radoje Žugić for governor in 2016, he was at that time a member of the DPS Main Board and an advisor to the then Prime Minister Milo Đukanović. In his address to MPs on 30 September 9, President Vujanović also explained that Žugić “resigned his membership in the DPS two days ago, so that is not an obstacle to voting for him”.
A member of the CBCG Council receives compensation for that position. Ruždija Hodžić's latest asset card, which is available on the website of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, states that last year he received a net monthly income of 1.700 euros.
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