Official trips of the President of the Municipal Assembly (MA) of Tivat Miljan Marković from the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) from the time of his appointment to that position in early December 2022 until the end of May this year, cost the citizens of Tivat 10.417 euros, with a significant portion of these expenses being incurred for travel that can hardly be linked to the legal powers and role of the president of the local parliament in the local government system in Montenegro.
This is shown by the research he conducted. Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) and data obtained from the Municipality of Tivat based on a request for free access to information. The costs of over 10.400 euros relate to paid airline tickets, accommodation, daily allowances and other accompanying expenses that Marković had while touring Montenegro, countries in the region and Europe, even reaching as far as China. These expenses, however, did not include the fuel costs of the official car “Škoda Octavia” (TV CG 002) owned by the Speaker of the Tivat Parliament, and in which Marković often traveled to various destinations in the past two and a half years, officially for official purposes.
CIN-CG requested travel orders, official trip reports, and expense records from the Municipality of Tivat for all of Marković's official trips since he assumed office in late 2022, when the current convocation of the Tivat parliament was constituted. According to the submitted documentation, Marković had one official trip in 2022 that cost 365,96 euros in airfare and an advance payment for traveling to Belgrade and attending a session of the Serbian National Assembly's Committee for Diaspora and Serbs in the Region.
In the following year, 2023, the Speaker of the Tivat Parliament traveled officially 17 times, which cost citizens (not counting fuel for the official car) a total of 2.769 euros.
In his official “Skoda”, Marković went to ceremonial sessions of local parliaments in Nikšić, Plužine, Žabljak, Gusinje, Berane and Rožaje, as well as Konjic in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is a twin city with Tivat, on the occasion of the days of those municipalities. That year, Marković also attended the ceremony on the occasion of the Day of the City of Banja Luka, although he is the mayor of Banja Luka. Draško Stanivuković An official invitation to attend the ceremony was sent to the President of the Municipality of Tivat. Željko Komnenović, from the People Wins list, and not to the president of the local parliament, Miljan Marković.
That same year, Marković also went to the celebration of the day of the municipality of Vrbas in Serbia. While all of these visits and official trips can be said to be in accordance with the role and legal powers of the speaker of the local parliament, this can hardly be said for several other official trips by Miljan Mraković in 2023, the costs of which were covered by all the citizens of Tivat.
Thus, that year, the president of the Tivat Municipal Council inaugurated the practice of regularly appearing as a municipal official at many religious and spiritual events organized by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC): participation in events organized on the occasion of the “210th anniversary of the birth of the Lovćen Seer” - the promotion of the book “Lovćen Twilight” in Herceg Novi, a memorial service that was held on September 15 of that year on the occasion of the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom, National Flag and the Breakthrough of the Thessaloniki Front in the Savina Monastery near Herceg Novi for patriots from Boka who fell in World War I. He officially attended the donor dinner in Belgrade for the construction of the Temple of Saint Sava in Žabljak, and the ceremony on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the consecration of the Cathedral Church in Podgorica. In addition, although the president of the Municipal Council has no contact with tourism or internal audit activities that are organized in the Municipality within the framework of a special service that is an advisory service to the mayor, not the president of the local parliament, in 2023 Marković also officially traveled to the Novi Sad Tourism Fair, i.e. a two-day seminar in the field of internal audit, organized by the Institute of Internal Auditors of Serbia on Fruška Gora.
From Poland to China
In 2024, Marković had fewer official trips - only ten, but some were to exotic destinations, so the total amount paid for this by the citizens of Tivat was 5.855 euros. For example, that year he spent three days in Poland, where he learned about the production processes and technologies of the local company "Marex Technology" and toured wastewater treatment plants based on membrane and SBR technology.
"The goal of the visit is to gain insight into capacities and opportunities. During this official trip, the story of potential cooperation for mutual benefit was also initiated," reads Marković's official report from that official trip, which he submitted to the Municipality of Tivat upon his return from Poland.
Last year, Marković traveled to Salzburg, Austria, where he attended the 20th General Assembly of the IRE (Institute of the Region of Europe). Before going to Austria, he spent seven days in China, where he attended the Congress of Cooperation between China and the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe. He went to Beijing, or Xi'an, at the invitation of the Secretariat for Cooperation between China and the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, where, however, Marković's name as an invitee was handwritten. In the report he submitted to the Municipality upon his return, Marković wrote in English "official meetings with Chinese central and local government in Shangdon and Xian Shaanxi Province".
Marković's accommodation and travel expenses in China were covered by his hosts, while his travel expenses to and from China, as well as his daily allowance, were paid for by the citizens of Tivat. This official trip cost them 2.259 euros for plane tickets and 1.434,5 euros for the daily allowance of the president of the Tivat Municipal Assembly.
The third "beheading" of John the Baptist
In addition to his usual trips to ceremonial sessions of local parliaments in several Montenegrin cities on the occasion of the days of those municipalities, Marković intensified his “official trips” to religious events organized by the Serbian Orthodox Church last year. Thus, he went to Plav for, as stated in the travel order, “80 years since the suffering of the holy martyrs in Velika, Plav”, and in Plužine he officially went to “the feast of the Third Exaltation of the Head of Saint John the Baptist - the holy hierarchal liturgy in the metokh of the Piva Monastery”. In May last year, Marković officially traveled to Belgrade for the “founding session of the Business Club of the Union of Serbs from Montenegro and the regular annual Assembly of the Union”, and before that, in April he went to Romania to attend the signing of the charter on the twinning of the municipalities of Tivat and Đurđa, which was signed by the mayors of the two cities.
In the first five months of this year, the Speaker of the Tivat Parliament had six official trips that, in daily allowances and airfare and accommodation costs, cost 1.427 euros. He went, among other things, to Murino to attend the “retirement liturgy for the victims of NATO crimes” on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the bombing of Murino, and he spent four days in the town of Petange in Luxembourg, whose local authorities invited Tivat Mayor Željko Komnenović to visit in order to establish cooperation between the two cities. In Luxembourg, Marković attended the large carnival there “Petange Cavalcade”, and he spent three days in Tirana where he participated in a conference called “Synergy of Local Authorities Towards Regional Cooperation and EU Integration” organized by the West Balkans Fund and the Embassy of Japan in Albania.
Marković also spent three days in Romania, where he visited Bucharest, Targovishte, Moeni and Craiova at the conference "Smart city 2025: Connecting Romania and Montenegro", through cooperation between cities from the two countries in the field of exchange of experiences in the field of spatial planning, e-governance and decentralization, i.e. financing from EU funds. In one day - May 8, Marković went on an official trip to Podgorica for three events: a presentation of software and audio-visual solutions for local parliaments in the Science and Technology Park, a session of the Assembly of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro - an organization of which Marković is the vice president, and a ceremony on the occasion of World Bee Day at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Podgorica, where a 3D model of the Carniolan bee was presented that evening. The President of the Tivat Parliament is privately engaged in beekeeping.
He also asked for money for a party visit to Slovenia.
On June 15, Marković also traveled to Slovenia, to Kamniška Bistrica, where he is the speaker of the Montenegrin parliament and leader of the NSD. Andrija Mandic together with a large delegation of party officials who hold various important positions in Montenegro and representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, laid a wreath in memory of the Chetniks and civilians associated with them who were killed by the Partisans at the end of World War II, in 1945, near the Zidani Most in Slovenia.
Marković was previously informed by the Mayor of Tivat Municipality Željko Komnenović that he could not officially attend the event and officially represent the Municipality of Tivat there. He did not allow Marković to travel to Slovenia in an official car and at the expense of the local government. Despite this, when he returned from Slovenia, Marković submitted a request for reimbursement from the municipal budget for the expenses of his trip with the New Serbian Democracy delegation to Kamniška Bistrica. Mayor Komnenović rejected this request.
Unanswered questions
Marković did not respond to CIN-CG's questions regarding official trips in the past two and a half years, as well as the justification for the president of the local parliament to travel and participate in events or manifestations that have no connection with his legal powers and role in the local government system: tourism fairs, carnivals, international economic cooperation between China and Europe, presentations of foreign factories that produce sewage treatment equipment, and numerous religious events, but exclusively organized by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
“Attendance at events organized on the occasion of religious holidays, in some cases, is part of the protocol obligations of the Mayor and other municipal officials and is aimed at building and maintaining harmonious relations with representatives of all religions represented in Tivat. Specifically, the Mayor almost without exception attends the Islamic Community’s iftar, celebrations organized by the Jewish Community in Tivat, and services in Catholic and Orthodox churches for major Christian holidays. Official trips to other countries in the region for this purpose are not the practice of the local government,” the Tivat mayor’s office told CIN-CG.
While Komnenović attends events organized by all religious organizations, Marković, even though he is the president of the local parliament in which representatives of all citizens are represented, attends exclusively events organized by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
When asked who, according to internal procedures in the Municipality of Tivat, approves official trips for the president of the local parliament and who assesses the appropriateness and justification of his individual official trips, Marković's office did not respond.
The mayor's office announced that "in accordance with the internal procedure for official travel in the country and abroad, approval for an official trip is given to an official or civil servant by the head of the authority, while approval for the heads of authorities is given by the Mayor of the Municipality."
"This act does not define who and how approves travel for the President of the Municipal Assembly. In the last few years, orders for official travel for the President of the Municipal Assembly have been signed by the Secretary of the Municipal Assembly," they said.
In practice, this means that Marković's travel orders are signed by the secretary of the municipal council, to whom Marković is directly subordinate. The Tivat mayor's office did not provide CIN-CG with a specific answer about the purpose of the local parliament speaker's official trips to religious Orthodox gatherings, a tourism fair, internal audit seminars, a presentation of wastewater treatment technologies in Poland, or China's economic cooperation with European countries. We were told that "every official trip assumes a certain official task that must be completed."
"Before each official trip, it is important to determine the purpose, goal and its possible concrete results in the interest of the city. The Office of the Mayor and the Mayor do not have access to invitations that arrive at the address of the President of the Municipal Assembly, nor to other relevant documentation such as reports from official trips. The Mayor has no influence on which events the President of the Municipal Assembly will appear at and which invitations he will respond to, but he is responsible for the implementation of the budget, so in that direction, changes to the existing internal procedures are needed, in order to define who is authorized to sign the order for an official trip to the President of the Municipal Assembly," said Komnenović's office.
Marković did not respond to any of CIN-CG's specific questions regarding his official trips to events that have no direct connection to his legal powers and role as the president of the municipal assembly. He also did not answer the question of whether he stands by his previously publicly stated positions that as the president of the municipal assembly, he has the right to intervene on a daily basis, outside of the sessions of the Assembly, in matters that are exclusively in the domain of the local executive authority, and not the representative local authority that he heads. Namely, in addition to trips that are not exactly in line with his duties and functions, Marković has also introduced the practice of regularly communicating on a daily basis with the heads of municipal bodies and local public enterprises and institutions, requesting reports, information and official documentation from them, attending sessions of the collegium of the municipal president with the heads of local government bodies, receiving citizens and promising what is in the domain of the local executive authority.
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