Attempt to name Mladena Mikielja for the director of the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management in the new term caused a fierce argument at the Government session yesterday, because the Prime Minister Milojko Spajic did not allow the item proposed by the Minister of Spatial Planning to be put on the agenda Slaven Radunović, "Vijesti" learns.
Four participants in the session told the newspaper that Radunović requested that the last item on the agenda, "personnel issues," be supplemented by the appointment of Mikijelj, whose four-year term expires today.
After Spajić refused, these sources of "Vijesti" claim that Radunović and some other ministers from the coalition For the Future of Montenegro insisted that Mikijelj be elected, "at the cost of leaving the government."
"Good luck to everyone who wants to leave," the prime minister allegedly said at the session, according to sources in "Vijesti," "not wanting anyone to blackmail him." "He told them to send reasons why Mikijelj is being appointed and not someone else."
Spajić reminded coalition partners of the agreement that professionals, not party members, would be appointed to management positions in state-owned enterprises.
To this, ministers from the ZBCG accused him of appointing party members from the Prime Minister's Europe Now Movement to leadership positions, mentioning, among others, last year's appointment of the executive director of the Electric Power Industry of Montenegro. Ivan Bulatović.
They were told that it was not the same because Bulatović is a professional in his job, and that some of the PES quota members are not even party members, sources told "Vijesti".
The Director of the Public Company for Coastal Zone Management is appointed by the Government at the proposal of the Personnel Commission, to which the Minister of Spatial Planning submits his proposal and the candidate's biography. Sources of "Vijesti" claim that Radunović did not propose Mikijelj to the Personnel Commission, but rather tried to "push" the prominent official of his New Serbian Democracy directly at the Government session.
And with this fact, Spajić allegedly explained his refusal to put Mikijelj's appointment on the agenda, saying that he would not give up his position.
Yesterday's events at the meeting mean that Morsko dobro, which recently announced a controversial tender for the lease of beaches and temporary facilities on the Montenegrin coast, will be left without a director as of today, so it is unclear who will sign documents, including contracts with tenants, if a compromise is not found between PES and ZBCG in the foreseeable future on who will manage the company for the next four years.
One of the interlocutors of "Vijesti" said that it is not ruled out that this compromise will be reached, but it is not clear how.
"That's Minister Radunović's problem," said the source.
The newspaper learned that at a recent meeting, Mikijelj proposed that he be approved to create 110 more jobs in Morski dobro, allegedly for the needs of servicing the Port of Budva, which the company recently took over, and the Kamenari-Lepetane ferry line, which was also allegedly rejected.
"The port of Budva doesn't need more than a dozen people," said one of the newspaper's interlocutors.
Critics and the opposition accuse all ruling parties of continuing the practice of the previous government, the Democratic Party of Socialists, of employing thousands of members and supporters of their parties in order to achieve better results in the elections, and are particularly under attack by the party from the coalition For the Future of Montenegro. This coalition and other parties deny this, claiming that they are correcting an injustice, claiming that these people could not find employment anywhere while the DPS was in power.
"That's how they seem to operate, that's their only method and goal of work, unlike us," said an interlocutor close to PES.
The opposition often accuses Spajić, whose PES has the most members of parliament, of not having the strength to oppose the speaker of parliament and the NSD. Andrija Mandić, claiming that he is the leader of the ruling coalition and not the prime minister.
The 34-year-old Mikijelj recently led a coalition made up of the NSD, the Democratic People's Party and several other parties, which remained in opposition despite winning nine seats, the same as their main rival, the Budva Our City coalition. The leader of that coalition was elected mayor and former official of the ZBCG Nikola Jovanovic, with the support of the local European Union and the Civic Movement URA. Mikijelj has meanwhile resigned from his council position.
He was appointed as the director of the Coastal Zone by the Government. Zdravka Krivokapića On March 5, 2021, at the proposal of the then Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism Ratko Mitrović, instead Predrag Jelušić, who was relieved of duty.
Until then, Mikijelj had been the secretary for investments of the Municipality of Budva for two and a half years as a member of the New Serbian Democracy party. Before that, he was a councilor in the Budva parliament, and previously served as deputy director of a bank in Budva.
He graduated from the Faculty of International Economics, Finance and Business at the University of Donja Gorica, and worked as an intern at the Ministry of Economy from 2014-2016.
Mikijelj's name became known to the public when, in June 2020, during the violent change of government and its takeover by the DPS, the police threw him onto the plateau in front of the Municipality building during his arrest, and a police officer put a boot on his neck.
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