The director of Monstat, Miroslav Pejović, said that there is no word on fabricating the census data, and data entry has started today.
He said that 120 operators were hired for the data entry process, based on a public announcement.
He said at the session of the Parliamentary Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of the Agreement on the Conditions for Maintaining the Census that Monstat published preliminary data on January 25, where they pointed out that it was preliminary data.
He said that he believes that there was no need for this session because they had a more than correct cooperation with the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) and doubts were resolved on the fly.
"We could do that now," said Pejović and added that he believes that the public is needlessly agitated by the CDT's allegations.
Pejović said that the budget is becoming operational, so until today there was no possibility to pay census participants
As he said, ten municipalities have completed the calculations and Monstat will pay the money today or tomorrow.
Appealed to the remaining municipalities to complete the calculations so that payments can begin.
He also said that the conditions have been met for announcing a tender for the announced software in accordance with the tender documentation, which was prepared by the Government Commission.
"I will not go into the story about the composition of the commission, whether it is truncated or not, whether the president is missing, that is already up to the Government, the opposition and the authorities... The specification for the software was implemented before, now the tender documentation has been completed, so they have been created conditions for tendering".
Milica Kovačević from CDT said that the intention of that NGO was not to misuse the Board, but to speak rationally and with arguments about the perceived problems.
"At no time did we say that it was abuse, but we presented the facts... There was a difference in the numbers that were announced to the public, it is about the number of over 40.000 registered persons, and we believe that it deserves a detailed discussion and explanation, not rejection and discrediting through short media announcements... We did not spread unverified information, but Monstat manipulated the public announcement because they confirmed the thesis that it was not possible to enumerate 40.000 citizens in the last two days of the census," she stated.
She said that she heard from the director of Monstat that they (CDT) unnecessarily agitated the public, that they misled the citizens, so she expects to be arrested for the criminal offense of causing panic and disorder as soon as she leaves the building.
"But I will try to convince you that I don't have to surrender myself".
She said that they heard from Monstat that the instructors could not regularly and up-to-date enter data into the web application, which was another acknowledgment that the census was not conducted with full respect for the methodology.
She said that they receive calls from citizens and foreigners in Montenegro who say that they were not registered or that they were not registered legally, that the registration was carried out outside the apartments.
"Even among CDT employees, we have an example of enumeration by phone. Because of all this, we are responsible to the public to ask questions, without prejudging that it is abuse and without creating drama," said Kovačević.
She asked how Monstata missed a city the size of Bijelo Polje in monitoring census dynamics.
As she said, even if it is the instructor's lack of punctuality, it is necessary to examine the causes of this lack of punctuality and whether it has any consequences.
"The key question is why Monstat did not announce this difference and explain it at the conference on January 25," Kovačević said.
She asked how Monstat went from stating that there was an obvious decrease in the number of inhabitants in December to an increase in the preliminary results, without the need to explain that there was a problem with the dynamics and that it was not correct for some reason.
"Who are the instructors who did not perform their work in accordance with the methodology? How many are there and from which municipalities? Has a procedure been initiated against them? Has there been any
Co-president of the Committee Darko Dragović asked Monstat how many people were enumerated on December 27 and 28 and after that.
"Our goal is that the data collected on those two days are not misused and presented as those collected after that date," Dragović pointed out and added that this is the first time he has heard of the problems of not entering data on a daily basis.
Rakočević: The session will not end until Monstat answers CDT's questions
The co-president of the Board, Nikola Rakočević, said that the CDT had sent ten precise questions, which should be answered by Monstat.
"Until these questions are written down and answered precisely, this session of the Committee will not end. We can take a break, if Monstat needs more time... We must have answers, so that the public can say: 'It's about misinforming the public, and not seeking to abuse the process'. We all want to believe that, but this Committee would not exist if there was full trust," Rakočević pointed out.
He also said that the "lawyering" of the majority deputies raises additional doubts.
Dragović replied that it is not the goal of the PES to clear up all ambiguities and to refuse answers to the CDT's questions, this session would not even exist.
New Serbian Democracy MP Jovan Vučurović said that he takes with a grain of salt what CDT is doing, as well as part of the NGO sector.
"I am expressing my fear that this is a combination of NGOs and DPS to obstruct this democratic process. I don't have evidence yet, but when I get it, then I will say that it is so".
Rakočević replied that Vučurović is misinterpreting what he said.
"I said that the session cannot end without getting answers, that does not mean that it will last until tomorrow. Maybe the session will last for half an hour, and let's continue tomorrow, if Monstat needs time to collect the necessary data... I did not say that you have a connection with Monstat, but I asked Mr. Dragović not to raise doubts by responding instead of Monstat... We as the opposition entered this process, if it turns out to be illegitimate and we take part of the responsibility for it. That is why it is illogical that the opposition has cooperation with anyone who raises doubts about the census process," said Rakočević.
Pejović: There is no need to raise tensions again when everything has been successfully implemented
Pejović asked the deputies to stop politicizing the process.
"We know what led to the formation of this Committee - politicization, politicians... At every session we feel like we are in a control hearing, and we are evaluated by people less expert than us. We are professional statisticians... There is no need to raise tensions again when everything is successfully implemented".
In response to CDT's questions, he said that at every meeting of the board, they put "a dose of reserve on the dynamics of enumeration".
"It seems to me that they have come to replace the thesis, the dynamics of the enumeration cannot be equated with the results of the enumeration in real time".
He added that Monstat was not obliged to report on the dynamics of the census, which was not done in the previous census, but was done based on the request of the Board.
Pejović reminded that material was delivered to the instructors in the premises of the Census Commission every day.
"The working hours of enumerators were from eight in the morning to eight in the evening... We know what a chaos it was in the Capital City as the largest municipality, where at the beginning we did not have the conditions to work, so the instructors stayed at work until 2,3 hours after midnight in order to checked the material, and that was not the practice in previous censuses either, but the material was checked on a sample basis," said Pejović.
He added that after the case of "write-erase pencils", additional control mechanisms were introduced, so inspectors checked every census material.
Pejović claims that Monstat processed every reported doubt about the regularity of the process to the competent authorities.
He said that they were in daily communication with the citizens and that he personally contacted the citizens and directed enumerators to addresses where they were not enumerated.
"There was a lack of up-to-date filling in of the application on the dynamics of the enumeration, but the dynamics is not something that obliged us, but rather a matter of good will to inform you of the situation on the ground, but we cannot take the data on the dynamics of the enumeration for granted, because then we would have another method of conducting the census. This would mean that on the 30th, when the census is finished, we have the results in real time and there would be no need to wait 25 days to announce the preliminary results," explained Pejović.
According to him, a bigger and stronger control mechanism was never established in the census process, and that it was never more transparent, they were even too transparent, "they gave data that they did not have to give".
Answering questions about the instructors, Pejović said that they were part of the agreement and Monstat was the last address for the question of who these people were and how they were chosen.
"We know that they are from the Bureau. Somewhere, a colleague had a statement that there were a certain percentage of people who were not computer literate. We have to give priority to people who are unemployed, students...that agreement had a good influence on the selection of enumerators and instructors , and Monstat did not even participate in the selection of enumerators," said Pejović.
He said that it is completely incorrect that Monstat has registered 45 thousand people in the last two days.
"We gave an explanation that we didn't even have to give...".
He said that for the next session of the Monstat Committee, he will submit detailed reports and analyzes for each municipality, and, if necessary, also at the level of enumerators and instructors, who are not to blame, but the priority has changed according to forced circumstances, a case of "write-erase pencils". ..
He said that at the moment they are not able to answer all the questions.
He appealed to the analysts to be careful, because they repeatedly stated that these are preliminary results that are subject to change.
"In the last census, there were five thousand duplicates. You know that now the data is raw, copied from the controller, these are the first results on the number of inhabitants, households and apartments".
He said that if it is necessary for them to decisively answer every question posed by Milica Kovačević, they need preparation for that.
"We planned to submit a detailed analysis for inspection so that we can discuss, although this does not represent any problem or potential abuse, but we can discuss".
Vladislav Bojović (DNP) said that he does not see the need for dramatization, because such questions have been asked before at the Committee.
"We will not allow anyone to cast a shadow on the regularity of this process, if they do not have serious evidence," he said.
Nikola Rovčanin (Democrats) said that if there had been no transparency in this process, which the Committee requested, there would not have been any of these questions.
"But we have to understand that the level of transparency of this process, compared to before, has raised the bar and that both this Committee and the public had regular information," he said, noting that Monstat always said that it was preliminary data.
Nikola Zirojević (SD) asked the representatives of Monstat whether there was a violation of the methodology in the way that the instructors did not enter data in a timely manner.
"Of course, with a fence and understanding that there was a lot of work and that it was once physically impossible to do. My personal impression, based on the presentation here - you don't seem to me like people who will insert 40.000 census forms for anyone's benefit".
Jevto Eraković (DPS) asked for written answers to the CDT's questions as soon as possible, so that they could comment on them at the Board.
He also asked if Monstat could provide the number of registered foreign citizens.
"This is very important for us in order to assess the quality of coverage and some other statistical parameters through which we will see if the process fully corresponds to all the facts," said Eraković.
Kovačević: CDT did not claim that it was abuse, it is important to clarify everything
Milica Kovačević said that the Board had some reports in which they had more data than the public and that the CDT pointed out the difference in the data on January 25 at 14:30 p.m., less than three hours after the Monstat conference on January 25 and that it was not time to conspire with anyone, all they wanted.
"I did not come to the Board unprepared, without listening to all the public appearances of the director of Monstat... We received information that by December 28, 627.340 people had been registered, and then 632.083 were announced in Dnevnik RTCG, which means a difference of five thousand between those two days . Even if it is a delayed dynamic, and I have no reason not to believe you, between those two days we have a difference of 5.000, and then suddenly 21 appear only on January 41.000. That is six percent of the total census material and I think it is valuable to answer these questions, to determine what it is about, so that no one would suspect that it is abuse," Kovačević said.
She repeated that the CDT did not claim that it was abuse, falsification... but that it is important to clarify everything.
She added that the census dynamics show the shortcomings of the process.
"My intention was not for you to answer the questions automatically, I hope for the sake of the citizens that we will come to an explanation of what exactly happened with this," Kovačević said.
Pejović replied that everything is verifiable.
"I repeat - this is not a problem for us. If we had not reported on the dynamics of the enumeration, the public, and not even this Committee, would have had information on how much was enumerated on that day. I appeal to us to use common sense and logic. From the previous enumeration, we cannot see whether there were deficiencies, because the dynamics of the census were not reported," said Pejović
He added that politics is constantly interfering in this exclusively statistical process and appealed to discuss the census and statistics.
He also pointed out that it is not possible to announce the number of registered foreign citizens until all the data is entered.
The members of the Board accepted Dragović's proposal that Monstat answer all CDT's questions in writing and deliver the answers on Tuesday, in order for the Board members to prepare for the continuation of the session on Wednesday.
Bonus video:
