The holders of electoral lists in the elections in Podgorica do not have a concrete plan to solve the problem of excess employees in local administration and city enterprises - the opposition, traditionally, promises that there will be no party employment, while the current government accuses the previous one and announces a review of sick leave and verification of diplomas.
No one stated in what period they would solve that problem, nor how much money they would need for that, nor where that money would come from.
According to data from the Ministry of Finance, a total of 1.129 employees were employed in Podgorica in June in local government bodies and public institutions and organizations (excluding city enterprises) (six employees more than in March of this year). Podgorica, according to the preliminary results of last year's census, has 186.827 inhabitants, which means that there is one employee in the city administration for every 165 citizens.
Current mayor Olivera Injac she told RTCG last year that there are over 800 employees in the administration services, and a total of about 4.000 (including businesses). She said that in some city companies, more than 60 percent of employees are employed in relation to the volume of work, and that the situation in Vodovod is perhaps the worst, "because it has had big problems with debts and a large number of employees for a long time".
Public policy researcher at the Institute of Alternatives Milena Muk She told "Vijesta" that data from the Ministry of Finance show that more than 1.000 people were employed in Montenegrin local governments in just one year, and almost half of that number (459) refers to Podgorica.
"Thus, the parties that once justifiably criticized excessive employment in city enterprises, such as Vodovod, did not reverse earlier practices but deepened them. Hence, it is not surprising that essentially, apart from declarative calls for the fight against partitocracy, no list has a plan to stand in the way of these practices,'' said Muk.
Instead, as she added, one can notice a regularity, that only relatively minor players, who are not expected to be the headquarters of the future government, have included "optimization" and the fight against "party recruitment" in their programs.
Executive Director of Action for Social Justice (ASP) Ines Mrdovic she said that numerous election cycles have shown that no party misses the opportunity to hire its party or nepotist staff after winning the elections.
"And employment in the central and local administration is more expensive today than ever, due to the significantly higher salaries and benefits that employees receive in the public sector, as opposed to the private sector, so you should not be naive and believe that this practice will soon disappear", said Mrdović.
"Vijesti" asked all newspaper holders (13 of them) how, in what period and how much money (and from where) they would solve the problem of excessive number of employees, first of all in local companies.
The answers were sent by the holder of the list for the future of Podgorica Jelena Borovinić Bojović, nosilac liste Pokreta Evropa sad i Demokrata Saša Mujović, Nermin Abdić (DPS), Boris Mugoša (European Union), Ilija Mugoš (Party of European Progress), Srdjan Peric (Reversal), Vuk Kadic (Movement Forward) i Stanko Đuričić (Montenegro civil action).
Doubtful degrees and illegal employment
Mujović said that there is a well-founded suspicion that a certain number of employees in the capital used dubious diplomas when applying for a job.
"Therefore, it is completely clear that by revealing them, we will relieve the system. The same is the case with illegal employment, of which there were several hundred, and all of these are things that must be reviewed in detail,'' said Mujović.
According to him, the system of the Capital City, including the city administration, companies, public institutions and agencies has over 4.000 employees.
"The administration of the Capital City has around 850 employees, which is an impressive number even for much larger cities. However, the key problem is the very bad personnel policy that was conducted in the Capital City for decades, and it involved the employment of a large number of people without a prior analysis. Despite great progress in the field of technology, digitization and automation of numerous processes, a fundamental analysis and restructuring of work organization and optimization of workplaces has not been done,'' he said.
He added that sick leave is a big problem, for which it is still difficult to determine the basis.
"In this regard, I am glad that the National Commission for Sickness Control was formed in March in order to solve this issue that burdens our administration in the best way, through a systemic approach," Mujović said.
He believes that all people who legally got a job can be useful in the system, but everyone who has a job will "work and have to earn their monthly wages".
Jelena Borovinić Bojović said that this is another problem that dates back to the period of the "corrupt former government".
"All the problems they created in the past 30 years could not be solved in one year. This is why they caused a crisis in the capital and blocked reforms in Podgorica and the development of the city. The surplus of employees, dominantly in Čistoca and Vodovod, was created at one time solely due to the lack of support that the former regime had,'' said Borovinić Bojović.
According to her, the obvious proof that there is a surplus are the many years of sick leave, which in these two companies are measured in the hundreds.
As she said, the first step in solving this problem is the formation of commissions and the review of the justification of sick leave, as well as the analysis of the required number of employees.
Abdić: At the office of the director of some companies, 5-6 drivers
Nermin Abdić says that he had the opportunity to hear that some city companies are currently hiring 5-6 drivers, secretaries, etc. at the director's office.
"It is also clear that in the first six months of the mandate of the current city administration, more than 250 contracts were concluded. It is clear that there is no need for that. Those people, if they are employed in accordance with the law, can be assigned to other positions in accordance with their qualifications, otherwise some unpopular decisions must be made. I believe that this reorganization of work can be realized already in the first year of the mandate of the new city administration", said Abdić.
He states that everyone is aware that employment in the public sector is significantly influenced by political parties, that the result is the creation of an inefficient system and a large surplus in terms of the number of employees, but also that the previous efforts to change this were either insufficient or insincere.
"The consequences of such a situation in the public sector are dramatically reflected in the state of public finances, the local self-government budget, the quality of services provided, the living standard of the population and the overall quality of life in Podgorica," said Abdić.
He believes that with comprehensive reforms it is possible to achieve greater savings and create an efficient system of local self-government and carefully analyze all acts on systematization and compare them with the situation on the ground, that is, the organizational units of the city.
Boris Mugoša announces that he will thoroughly reorganize city companies, which, he says, will end the practice of political employment and ensure that jobs are reserved for professional and qualified people.
"We have to open the administration for non-party figures, including people from the system who are not members of any party and have very high-quality knowledge," Mugoša said.
He says that party members, who will hold certain functions, will have to freeze their party function.
He said that every type of employment will be public and based on real needs and qualifications.
According to his words, the councilors of the parties that make up the European Union have so far pointed to hundreds of concluded employment contracts and occasional and temporary jobs and labor contracts.
"They also pointed out that in the system of the Capital City, on the basis of work contracts, some councilors from the ruling majority were engaged and they themselves voted for the increase of the amount allocated for work contracts. As the public is aware, we received confirmation that e.g. one city company employed more than 180 people in just the first year of the new city administration,'' said Mugoša.
He said that the European Union invited the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) and other relevant institutions to closely monitor employment in the capital and ensure a fair and transparent election race.
To "hit the partitocracy on the chin"
Srđan Perić points out that in order to solve the problem of excess employees, it is necessary to "hit the partitocracy in the chin" that actually generates it.
"At this moment, that is the key idea of the political action of Overturn. Additionally, rationalization should start "from the other end". Companies should be consolidated and the number of officials and members of management boards should be reduced. At the same time, a clear check of diplomas and competences of employees should be carried out and it should be determined who really wants to work, and who is actually interested in being a party activist employed in a city company or institution,'' said Perić.
He believes that the existing irrational management model needs to be replaced by a model that includes the reorganization of local companies, the reform of the organization of local administration and the optimization of work.
"In addition to the rationalization of administration costs, which implies the aforementioned reduction in the number of managers, those segments of local administration that can contribute to a faster and more sustainable development of the Capital City must be strengthened. Finally, it is also a path towards the depoliticization of companies and administration at the local level,'' said Perić.
He points out that in order to solve this problem, it is necessary to realistically have an entire mandate because it is an issue that is now connected with people's existence and must not be solved in a way that does not take this aspect into account.
Ilija Mugoša says that the goal of SEP is to provide citizens with functional services in which, unlike the current situation, human resources will become both needed and used.
"It goes hand in hand with the priorities of our program, which are exactly solving the problems of waste and traffic, and which we promise the citizens will be the first thing we will solve when we come to power," said Mugoša.
Vuk Kadić says that the issue of the number of employees in city enterprises requires a responsible and systematic approach, that is, it is necessary to carry out certain analyses, studies and plans that will contain proposals for measures to increase the efficiency of public administration and improve the quality of public services.
"Movement Naprijed stands for public administration reforms that should contribute to greater efficiency, and a special segment of which is the optimization of public administration. Certainly, such processes should be managed with the goal of local self-government having more efficient administration, budget savings and stable public finances, and citizens better quality services,'' said Kadić.
Stanko Đuričić (CGA) states that one of the program solutions of his party is the optimization and standardization of workplaces. This, as he explained, puts everything in order and professional and hard-working workers become the foundation of every public company.
"Those who are there for politics and other party tasks, they will have to step aside and free the institutions. This is the measure of our coalition agreement and this is the only way to heal institutions in the city, and I can freely say also in the state, because the situation is the same,'' he said.
He reminds that the EU has set aside special funds for reducing the number of workers in public companies, in order to encourage voluntary and early retirement with severance pay.
Milena Muk points out that the bigger the ambitions of the electoral list holders, especially if they start the election race from positions of power, such promises slowly fade.
"In this sense, it is symptomatic that the holder of the list of PES and Democrats openly said that the dismissal of employees in city enterprises is the 'last option', even relativizing some of the basic competences of the Capital City as the founder who has management rights and the obligation to supervise over their work. Unfortunately, this confirms the thesis, which I believe more and more, that the parties are more afraid of the assessment that the fight against irrational employment and specifically, the reduction of the employed, harms their electoral prospects,'' Muk said.
Mujović recently said in an interview with "Vijesta" that layoffs in city companies are the last option, and the first is to increase the collection of services provided, reduce unnecessary losses, strengthen the performance of companies...
Milena Muk says that even with the holder of the list that brings together GP URA, the Movement for Podgorica and the Movement for Changes, she sees a tendency to look for solutions to certain problems, such as the blocking of planning documents, in the establishment of new entities - in this case, companies, and not in critical by reviewing and/or possibly reorganizing existing administrative capacities.
Lists that until now did not have local parliamentary status somewhat more loudly in their programs advocate measures against the cumbersome administration, such as Movement Forward and Reversal.
"Nonetheless, I must say that the valid legal solutions and recommendations of the State Audit Institution are more ambitious than their ideas, which are mainly reduced to increased transparency and controls, until I noticed that the reduction of administration is explicitly mentioned," said Muk.
"One employee, four votes" still in force
Ines Mrdović says that due to party appetites expressed long ago in the famous, but never punished catchphrase "one employee, four votes", Montenegro today does not have a professional and competent administration, where people with references are employed, not according to party and interest keys, so they are they often obstruct work, because they are loyal to parties or people who brought them.
"Therefore, today we have a situation where both the position and the opposition rule in the country, i.e. the new ruling parties are at the top, but in depth the opposition cadre of the former DPS is with allies, instead of only professionals in the administration, who take care of the interests of the citizens , while election cycles should only bring about changes in political-management functions,'' she said.
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