In the past year, Olivera Injac, the former mayor of Podgorica, received a total of 22.877,73 euros in personal income. Her average monthly salary was 1.906,47 euros.
At the very top of the list is Željko Komnenović, the first man of the Tivat municipality, who earned a total of 2024 euros from salaries in 22.392,28.
The lowest salaries were recorded in three municipalities in the north: Plužine, Žabljak, Gusinje and Mojkovac. The presidents of these local governments collected less than 2024 euros in salary in 15.000.
With the focus on "regional leveling" of municipal presidents' salaries, the third position is a bit of a surprise Rahman Husović, the mayor of Rožaje. He earned a total of 19.251,51 euros last year. For the first nine months, he received 1.578,12 euros, and after the increase, his salary amounted to 1.682,81 euros.
An overview of the salaries of Montenegrin municipal presidents shows that, for example, Milo Bozovic, the detained former mayor of Budva, with a meager salary of 18.087 euros, received more than most mayors who did not do their jobs from a prison cell.
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The surprise could be the salary. Vladimir Jokić, the former mayor of the Municipality of Kotor, who not only had the lowest salary compared to his colleagues from the coast, but with a total of 16.115 euros received, or an average of 1.341,91 euros per month, he also had a lower salary than his colleagues from Petnjice or Tuzi.
The largest group is the group of municipal presidents who received between 16.000 and 17.000 euros last year. In addition to Jokić, this group includes the mayors of Nikšić, Cetinje, Tuzi, Herceg Novi and Petnjica.
The first people of Danilovgrad, Andrijevica and Šavnik received less than 16.000 euros, and at the very bottom of the table, with annual salaries between 14.000 and 15.000 euros, are the mayors of the municipalities of Plužine, Žabljak and Mojkovac.
Željko Ćulafić, the mayor of the Municipality of Andrijevica, received 1.189 euros in personal income in the first three months of last year, and then 1.196 euros in April, May and June. In July and August, Ćulafić earned 1.403 euros, and his highest earnings last year were in September when he received 1.418 euros. In October, his salary dropped to 1.306 euros, and in November and December he was paid 1.273 euros. In 2024, Ćulafić received a total of 15.230,08 euros in personal income.
Nikola Đurašković, the mayor of the Royal Capital of Cetinje, earned a total of 16.758,26 euros last year. At the beginning of 2024, in January, Đurašković withdrew 1.367,23 euros from the municipal treasury, and in the last three months of last year, the salary of the president of the Cetinje municipality amounted to 1.465,45 euros.
For 1.992 working hours, to the President of the Municipality of Danilovgrad Aleksandar Grgurović A total of 2024 euros was paid out in 15.546. His average monthly salary was 1.295,57 euros.
Stevan Katic, the first man of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, received 1.100 euros more than his colleague from Danilovgrad. He earned 12 euros in the 16.659,19 months of last year. Katic's salary ranged from 1.359,13 euros in January to 1456,75 euros he received in December last year.
Last year, 21.879,61 euros were allocated from the city treasury of Nikšić, which was the gross salary. Marko KovačevićThe President of the Municipality of Nikšić collected 2024 euros in 16.956,27. Last year, Kovačević ended with 1.483,48 euros, which was his December salary.
Samir Agovic, the mayor of Petnjica Municipality, received a monthly salary of 1.336,79 euros until October last year. After the increase in October, his salary was 1.436,84 euros. Agović earned a total of 2024 euros in 16.185,33.
First payment Oliver Injac, now the former mayor of Podgorica, did not change in the period January - September 2024. During that period, she earned 1.871,41 euros per month. After the increase, Injac's earnings in the last three months of last year amounted to 2.011,68 euros. Oliveri Injac earned a total of 2024 euros in 22.877,73.
Jugoslav Jakić, the mayor of the Municipality of Šavnik, received a salary of 1.246,08 euros in the first nine months of last year, and after the increase, his personal income amounted to 1.317 euros. He earned a total of 2014 euros in 15.165,72.
Željko Komnenović, the mayor of Kotor, has a basic salary of 1.556,10 euros. He receives an additional 319 euros for past work, so his net salary in December last year was 1.875,10 euros. Komnenović earned slightly less from January to July, so he received 1.859,54 euros in that period. The total net salary of the mayor of Tivat last year was 22.392,28 euros.
Lindon Dzhelaj, the mayor of Tuzi Municipality, had a significantly lower income last year than Komnenović. He received a total of 16.701,42 euros. Đeljaj's personal income before the increase was 1.367,23 euros, and in the last three months of last year he was paid 1.465,45 euros.
President of the Municipality of Žabljak Radoš Žugić In the first nine months of last year, he earned 1.203,34 euros. After the increase, his salary amounted to 1.281,06 euros. Žugić earned a total of 2024 euros in 14.673,24.
Milo Božović, the detained former mayor of Budva, received 2024 euros in personal income in 18.087. Judging by the time sheets that are the basis for calculating earnings, the former first man of the capital of Montenegrin tourism had a full work output every month - 174 working hours, without exceptions. Last year, Božović cost Budva's coffers 24.812 euros (gross), and his net monthly salary was 1.480 euros. He also felt the benefits of the economic program "Europe Now 2", so in the last three months of last year he received 1.588 euros.
Vladimir Jokić, former mayor of the Municipality of Kotor, with a total net personal income of 16.115 euros in 2024, is the lowest paid mayor of the coastal municipalities, earning less than even the mayor of Srpska, Milo Božović. In the first eight months of last year, he received a salary of 1.318,56 euros, in September he received 1.326,68 euros, and after the increase, his salary in the last three months of last year amounted to 1.413,28 euros.
In the Municipality of Ulcinj in 2024, he held the position of president until May 30th. Omer Bajraktari.
He is then replaced by the current mayor. Genzi NimanbegBarjaktari received a total of 7.127,45 euros, and his successor 10.216,66 euros. Together, they earned 17.341,11 euros.
The Municipality of Pljevlja sent a response to the SPI, which only listed the gross salary of the Mayor of the Municipality. Daria VranešMANS will appeal this decision.
Earnings are not a reflection of the city's economic power
Ines Mrdovic, director of the Action for Social Justice, said that the salaries of the presidents of Montenegrin municipalities are not an expression of the economic power of those local communities.
"Salaries stem from one of the basic principles in the current Law on Salaries of Public Sector Employees, that salaries are based on their uniformity for work on the same or similar jobs, and the coefficient for the salaries of mayors and presidents of local governments is legally tied to the number of inhabitants (the lowest is for municipalities with up to 10 thousand inhabitants, then it increases from ten to 50 thousand, then from 50 to 100 thousand, while the highest coefficient for calculating salaries is for cities with over 100 thousand inhabitants)," explains Mrdović.
She believes that the duties of a mayor of a municipality are certainly the same in Herceg Novi or Pljevlja, but on the other hand, the level of responsibility is not the same if you manage a budget of 80 million euros or just a few million.
"Although it should, the Law does not recognize the economic strength of these communities in terms of salaries of local government leaders. However, I would like to note that the Law stipulates that salaries are defined based on the trend in the deficit or surplus of local governments, and it is additionally defined that a local government whose debts exceed 10 percent of current revenues from the previous year must reduce the salary fund by 10 percent, unless it regularly settles these obligations. It is generally known that the majority of municipalities are extremely indebted and have huge liquidity problems, but the situation with salaries is a vicious circle and many legal solutions are often just a dead letter on paper and legal loopholes or circumvention mechanisms are found," Mrdović points out.
"Vijesti" obtained data on the salaries of the presidents of Montenegrin municipalities with the help of MANS's "Ask Institutions" application.
Municipality of Rožaje: Husović's earnings in accordance with the law
The office of the Mayor of Rožaje, commenting on the fact that the salary of Mayor Rahman Husović is among the three highest in Montenegro, says that their mayor's salary is determined in accordance with the law.
They state that the Law on Salaries in the Public Sector, Article 23, sets a coefficient for determining the salary of mayors and presidents of municipalities depending on the number of inhabitants in the local self-government. Since the Municipality of Rožaje, according to the data of the competent authority for statistics, has 23.184 inhabitants, the response states, the determination of the coefficient of the President of the Municipality of Rožaje, in accordance with this law, is classified in Group 2, with the criterion of the number of inhabitants from 10.000 to 50.000 inhabitants and it amounts to 17,29.
Also, they add, Article 6 of the Decision on the Salaries of Local Officials in the Municipality of Rožaje establishes the coefficient for the Mayor of the Municipality - 17,29.
Furthermore, the Municipality of Rožaje explains that the salary of an employee for full-time work and standard work performance is determined by multiplying the coefficient provided for the groups and subgroups into which his or her title is assigned with the calculation value of the coefficient determined by the Government of Montenegro (90 euros), increased by an allowance based on years of service (past work).
Past work - the employee's basic salary is increased for each year of service in accordance with the collective agreement: up to 10 years 0,5%, from 10-20 years 0,75% and over 20 years 1,00%.
Rahman Husović has 38 years of service, which, in accordance with the law and the sectoral collective agreement, increases his salary by 1% for each year started, so in accordance with this fact, the president's basic salary has been increased by a coefficient of past work of 0,305, or 30,5% of past work.
Therefore, the Municipality of Rožaje concludes, the net salary of the Mayor of Rožaje calculated in December 2024 is 1.682,81 euros and its amount is a reflection of the coefficient determined in accordance with the law (17,29) and in particular the years of service (38).
As for the general coefficients for the salaries of municipal presidents, in Rožaje they believe that they are low in relation to the complexity of the jobs, responsibilities and other elements important for evaluating the work of the municipal president.
For Ines Mrdović, on the other hand, it is paradoxical that the third highest earner is the head of a municipality that is one of the most underdeveloped in the country and whose population has been recognized for years as among the largest beneficiaries of various types of social assistance.
Another proof that the North is rapidly declining
The fact that municipalities from the north of Montenegro are at the bottom of the table is, for Ines Mrdović, proof that the north is rapidly deteriorating.
"People are leaving en masse and this is one of the biggest defeats of the Montenegrin state and future generations will not forgive us for this. There is no strategy for the revival of the north, while resources remain unused. The leaders of municipalities also bear enormous responsibility for this, for whom this function often served only as a stopover on their career path to Podgorica. Along with a pronounced unwillingness to fight for the interests of their municipality," Ines Mrdović points out.
Average salary and earnings of municipal presidents
If we compare the salaries of municipal presidents with the average personal income in specific local governments, it will be shown that, for example, the mayor of Rožaje, Rahman Husović, received 1,87 percent of the average salary in Rožaje in November last year, which amounted to 855 euros. Olivera Injac, who as mayor of the Capital City received 1,83 percent of the average salary in Podgorica, also records a high percentage.
The closest to the average salary in their municipality are the first people of the municipalities of Plužina, Žabljak and Mojkovac, whose president Vesko Delić, on an average salary of 852 euros in this municipality, received a personal income of 1.186,4 euros, which is 1,39 percent of the average salary.
Sošić: Mayors' salaries are low
We can only assess whether a salary is low or high if we compare it with other incomes, both at the local government level and in the wider public sector, said Marko Sošić from the Institute of Alternatives.
"Considering the level of responsibility that the leaders in municipalities have, I believe that their salaries are low. If directors of local public companies have, in some cases, over two or three thousand euros, and some mayors of municipalities (who are supposed to supervise them) have half that, then something is systematically wrong,"
He points out that through the amendments and new collective agreements for administration and utilities from 2023, salaries in local governments, both in administrative bodies and in utility companies, have significantly increased (in some cases by 30-40%).
"The salaries of municipal presidents and mayors have remained the same - they are set by the Law on Salaries in the Public Sector in relation to the number of inhabitants of the municipality, so in municipalities with a larger number of inhabitants, the president has a higher salary coefficient," adds Sošić.
It is neither fair nor reasonable, Sošić believes, that the executive director of one of the 16 local companies in the Capital has a higher salary than the mayor of Podgorica, such as Radoš Zečević, who heads Putevi DOO, and whose reported salary is 2.261 euros.
"Just as it is not logical that the executive directors of local broadcasters, municipal public companies RTV Nikšić and Rožaje, Komunalni and Možura in Bar, Port of Kotor, Wastewater in Budva have higher salaries than all the mayors of municipalities in Montenegro," explains Sošić.
He points out that searching for logic in the salary system in the public sector of Montenegro is a futile endeavor.
"All salaries in the public sector need to be reviewed and a certain kind of logical hierarchy of relationships established - the Prime Minister stated at the end of the year that amendments to the law on salaries in the public sector had been abandoned until an analysis of all income in the public sector had been conducted. We thought that this is exactly what they were doing when they formed a working group to amend this law a year ago. Constantly postponing reform steps and possibly "painful" decisions is not good - if he really wants to change the current situation, the Prime Minister must hold someone accountable."
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