The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) will not give up the political abuse of state resources, despite the principled support for the reform of the electoral legislation, claim the part of the civil sector and the opposition.
On the eve of the party congress, DPS proposed a list of candidates for new members of the Main Board (MB), among which there is a significant number of directors of public companies, as well as municipal and state officials. "Vijesti" interlocutors believe that this will further jeopardize negotiations on strengthening trust in the election process.
President of the Management Board of the Center for Monitoring (CeMI) Zlatko Vujović warns that DPS is a party that has grown strongly with the institutions.
"The use of state resources in order to gain an advantage over other parties in the elections is widespread among the DPS and its coalition partners. Therefore, it is not surprising that a large number of people in leading positions in public companies, public institutions found themselves in the position of candidates for the election of GO members. Misuse of state resources at the national level, but also in the rare municipalities where the opposition is in power, has become part of the governance culture. The parties in power believe that the institutions belong to them. Unfortunately, that will be our everyday life for a long time," claims Vujović.
Although, according to the DPS Statute, MPs, ministers, presidents of municipal committees and mayors are appointed to the GO by function, numerous other state and local officials also ran for membership in that party body. The list does not include the former mayors of Podgorica, Miomir Mugoša and Slavoljub Stijepović, against whom criminal and investigative proceedings are ongoing.
The list of candidates included, among others, the director of the Chamber of Commerce Vlastimir Golubović, the director of the Compensation Fund Đorđina Lakić, the assistant minister of education Arijana Nikolić Vučinić, as well as the executive director of EPCG Igor Noveljić.
The director of the Podgorica Center for Social Work Ana Stijepović, the president of the Investment and Development Fund (IRF) Zoran Vukčević, the executive director of the Igalo Institute Gordana Rajović, the director of the Cultural Center in Kolašin Dragica Ilinčić, and the director of the JU "Dom Starih" in Risnu Srđan Dragomanović.
Director of the Health Center in Kotor Igor Kumburović, director of the Nikšić hospital Ilija Ašanin, head of the Nikšić Employment Agency Rajka Radonjić, director of the hospital in Brezovik Gordana Reljić, director of the Traffic Administration Savo Parača, director of the Civil Aviation Agency Dragan Đurović, director of the Administration for property Blažo Šaranović, chief executive officer of Hipotekarna banka Esad Zaimović.
Among others, the director of the Tax Administration Miomir M. Mugoša, the director of the CNP Željko Sošić, the director of the Emergency Center Nermin Abdić, the director of JP Čistoća Andrija Čađenović, the director of the Podgorica High School Zoja Bojanić Lalović and the director of the JP Landfill Arsenije Boljević have been proposed as members of the GO. , director of the Regional Waterworks Goran Jevrić, Morski Dobr Predrag Jelušić.
Member of the Democratic Front (DF) Branka Bošnjak warns that the intertwining of party and work duties only confirms that Montenegrin society is suffering from an ossified partitocracy.
"All these directors are not in their positions thanks to their references and expertise, but exclusively according to the party's directive. Everyone grabs a piece of the government pie. Some get bigger, some smaller, and all according to the party's merits. And then they behave like a powerful pasha in their atar and blackmail employees to vote for DPS in order to show their loyalty to the boss and to keep themselves in positions they do not deserve," claims Bošnjak and points out that the task of GO members is to implement party directives in the state administration.
"That's why they were proposed to the new GO. After all these affairs, they will need many of those who, through abuse of position, intimidation and blackmail, will influence subordinates to vote for DPS. In the "Snimak" scandal, all managers who did not want to influence employees were called autistic. So they are not in GO by chance, because they will have to submit a report after the election. "It is less important how the company operates, more important is the number of pluses with which their voters are marked", claims Bošnjak.
The observation mission of the OSCE warned of the intertwining of state and party interests, which in the final report on the presidential elections last year indicated that DPS president and current head of state Milo Đukanović had an institutional advantage during the campaign.
The European Commission's (EC) progress report for 2019 states that there were no political and judicial developments regarding the illegal use of public funds for the needs of political parties.
Representatives of the ruling coalition and part of the opposition in the Committee for Comprehensive Reform of Electoral and Other Legislation are, among other things, considering how to prevent abuse of state resources for party purposes. In order to restore confidence in the electoral process, the opposition insists on punishing officials who use their positions in the state administration to collect votes.
Member of the Committee from the Democrats, Momo Koprivica, warns that the institutions are "colonies of DPS officials in which the party card is the main criterion." He claims that officials of the ruling coalition in state institutions are implementing party politics, especially during the election period.
"Through party employees in public positions, DPS controls employees in the public sector and exerts pressure from collecting signatures for the electoral list, recruiting for party gatherings, all the way to voting itself. Those public officials receive and implement the directives of the DPS municipal boards on who they will hire or hire on a short-term basis," said Koprivica.
Laws still exist, but they are not enforced
Vujović believes that the electoral reforms will not reduce the misuse of state resources in the election campaign. "The process of electoral reforms is proceeding rather slowly, and unfortunately in a non-transparent manner. Obviously, this suits many actors of the process. I am not optimistic that possible legislative reforms will affect a lower level of misuse of state resources. Inefficiency in that sector is more a problem of the lack of readiness of state institutions to deal with it than of bad legal solutions. The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) and the State Prosecutor's Office still have enough mechanisms to deal with these problems. "Unfortunately, that doesn't happen," claims Vujović.
Directors more active during the campaign
Koprivica reminded that from 2016 to 2018, 8.921 short-term contracts were concluded in institutions and the public sector during election campaigns, of which around 3100 were in the presidential election campaign.
"At that time, the party officials most intensively proved themselves to their boss, and at the expense of the citizens. That is exactly why the Democrats proposed a set of solutions to prevent party recruitment, starting with changes in the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, the Law on Prevention of Corruption, and the Law on Financing Political Entities and Election Campaigns. It is also necessary to build mechanisms for strong control and confiscation of property benefits acquired through violations of the law," he claims.
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