President of the Municipal Assembly (MA) of Tivat Miljan Marković (New Serbian Democracy) has been trying, since taking office in December 2022, as claimed by several employees of the local government there, to seize a much larger role in the Tivat government system than is legally due to him as the speaker of the municipal parliament.
Although he is the head of the local legislative and not the executive branch, Marković tries to communicate officially with the heads of municipal bodies and local enterprises and institutions on a daily basis, asks them to submit official documentation to him, receives citizens in his office every day, promises them things from the domain of the executive branch and not the local parliament, attends sessions of the Collegium of the Mayor of the Municipality with the heads of municipal bodies and services, and even participates in making daily managerial decisions by the municipal leadership regarding the filling and spending of the city budget and other important issues from the daily functioning of the local executive branch.
Several sources for "Vijesti" from the local administration of Tivat confirmed this behavior of the president of the local parliament and emphasized that Marković's actions and efforts "to participate in decision-making and the work of the executive branch at all costs" often hinder and complicate their daily work.
Marković did not respond to any of the questions from "Vijesti" about such claims. He did not even 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 speak on a daily basis, outside of parliamentary sessions, in matters that are exclusively within the domain of the local executive authority, and not the representative (legislative) local authority that he heads.
"Just so you know, my job description is to monitor the implementation of decisions made by the Assembly, which I sign and thus forward to the executive bodies for execution, and since the Assembly adopts the most important act for the city, which is the budget, and that document has my signature on it, of course I will do my utmost to monitor its implementation. Also, it is my full responsibility and obligation to cooperate with the secretaries and the mayor of the municipality. I regularly receive citizens and citizen initiatives because they recognize who really stands up for them. Well, if that bothers me, it's my fault," he wrote, however, on his Facebook account.
Marković did not respond to journalists' questions about this, although shortly after taking up the position, he also hired an advisor for public relations, protocol and international cooperation in his cabinet, which means that the speaker of the Tivat parliament also has his own spokesperson.
The Law on Local Self-Government is very clear when it comes to the division of roles and powers between the local representative government, headed by Marković, and the local executive government, led by the Mayor. Željko Komnenović (The people win).
“The President of the Assembly represents the Assembly, convenes the Assembly session, chairs and manages its work and ensures the implementation of its decisions and other acts,” reads Article 46 of the Law, while Article 55 states that “the President of the Municipality is the executive body of the Municipality.” The twenty-odd paragraphs of Article 58, which list the duties and powers of the President of the Municipality, state, among other things, that he, and not the President of the local parliament, is “responsible for the implementation of decisions and other acts adopted by the Assembly” and that he “adopts acts for their implementation,” and that the President of the Municipality, and not the President of the Assembly, “adopts acts to ensure the implementation of the Municipality’s budget.”
From the Ministry of Public Administration, led by the Minister Marash Dukaj, did not explicitly respond to the request of "Vijesti" to provide an official interpretation of what is specifically implied by the provision in Article 46 of the Law on Local Self-Government that the President of the Assembly "takes care of the implementation of its decisions and other acts", and whether this gives the head of the Assembly the right to directly monitor the work of bodies and institutions that implement the decisions of the Assembly, beyond the procedure provided for in paragraphs 23 and 24 of Article 38 of the Law on Local Self-Government.
It was not specifically answered whether the President of the Assembly, under any applicable provision of the Law on Local Self-Government, beyond the procedure provided for in paragraphs 7, 23 and 24 of the Law, has the right to monitor the execution of the Municipality's budget in any way on a daily basis, which Marković pleads to do.
When asked whether Marković's actions constitute a violation of the law and a possible basis for initiating a procedure for his dismissal, they said that "the Ministry of Public Administration can take a position only after conducting supervision over the implementation of the Law on Local Self-Government, and based on comprehensive case files."
"Vijesti" also sent the same questions to the Association of Municipalities of Montenegro, of which Marković is the vice president. With the caveat that the Association of Municipalities "is not competent for the authentic interpretation of any law," the general secretary of that association Mišela Manojlović said that "executive power at the local level is under the jurisdiction of the mayor, who manages the work of the municipal administration."
When asked whether the president of the local parliament has the legal authority to directly control the actions of the heads of local government bodies that fall under the executive branch on a daily basis, to request direct statements, reports or other documentation from the heads of executive government bodies, public institutions or companies founded by the Municipality of Tivat, outside the procedures provided for the work of the municipal assembly, the Association of Municipalities stated: "The Assembly performs the control function of the executive government through the information and reports it adopts. The Statute and Rules of Procedure of the Municipal Assembly may prescribe the right of councilors to request data from local government bodies for the purposes of performing their councilor functions."
It follows that Marković, as the "first among equals" of the 32 councilors of the Tivat parliament, cannot directly communicate with the heads of local authorities, municipal companies and services and can only address them based on the institute of councilor questions.
Union of Municipalities: The Assembly only adopts the budget and final accounts
When asked to interpret what exactly the phrase from Article 46 means - that the President of the Assembly "takes care of the implementation of its decisions and other acts", the Association of Municipalities explained that "taking care of the implementation of decisions and other acts implies the control function of the Assembly, as stated above, by adopting reports and information on the manner of their implementation and possibly issuing recommendations and conclusions in this regard".
They also stated that, according to the law, it is the mayor, or rather the president of the municipality, who issues acts that ensure the execution of the municipal budget.
"Therefore, the Mayor bears criminal and any other responsibility. The Assembly only adopts the budget and the final budget statement," concluded the Association of Municipalities.
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