Threatened with dismissal for a word spoken in public?

The Montenegrin Institute for Medicines and Medical Devices (CInMED), along with the dismissal of several managers, also initiated proceedings against certain employees because they warned them about violating regulations and informed others about what happened at sessions that were closed to the public.

This is shown by the documentation that "Vijesti" had access to. The Board of Directors (BoD) of CInMED asked the acting director Mire Kontić at the beginning of the month to initiate proceedings against the president of the Professional and Scientific Committee and the deputy director Majde Šahman Zaimović, justifying that proposal with the claim that she "interfered in the selection of directors".

The acting director of CInMED, Mira Kontić, in a warning about the existence of reasons for imposing a measure due to the violation of work obligations from ten days ago, stated that Šahman Zaimović had no basis and authority to interfere in the affairs and competences of the Supervisory Board, in the way she addressed. .”. In that address, signed by her and the other members of the Expert-Scientific Committee, dated July 27 of this year, it is stated that the selection of a candidate who does not meet the requirements for director is the basis for criminal liability, due to abuse of official position and negligent work in the service.

Kontić, two and a half months later, acting on the initiative of a part of the Supervisory Board, assessed that Šahman Zaimović most directly interfered in the work of this body in this way. In the warning to the employee, she stated that she "has the right to consider this and file a report, but she certainly does not have the right or authority to determine the basis of criminal responsibility."

In the warning, Kontić writes that Šahman Zaimović "knew or had to know" that the materials from the sessions were secret and that she "was obliged to inform the handler of secret data, that is, the president of the Supervisory Board, about the fact that someone was delivering materials from the session to the members without authorization of the expert-scientific committee".

Due to these alleged omissions, Šahman Zaimović could be fined in the amount of 20 to 30 percent of her monthly salary, and she is also threatened with termination of employment...

Part of the Board of Directors, President Vasilije Đurašković and members Milena Tadic, Marko Stoiljkov i Lidija Čizmović, ordered the acting director to dismiss the member Milena Lješković and implement the procedure of a new employee representative in that body.

As the reason for the dismissal, they stated that Lješković stated that she "put the confidential information for inspection by the expert-scientific committee", which, as they claim, then reached the media and certain MPs. Colleagues complain that she "independently appeared in the media and expressed views contrary to the decisions adopted by the majority of the Supervisory Board". In the initiative, the acting director stated that Lješković also "behaved inappropriately at the meetings". They concluded that the Expert-Scientific Board exceeded its powers and exerted pressure by interfering in the selection of the director...

At the end of August, the Board of Directors abolished the conditions that the director of the Institute must have a health-related faculty and a scientific title or specialization in health care, and appointed the lawyer Mira Kontić as the acting director, whom some of the media and members of parliament claim is close to the prime minister. Zdravko Krivokapić, whose family members are in the pharmaceutical business.

The Supervisory Board considered that the aforementioned provision of the Rulebook is discriminatory, because the Medicines Act only stipulates that the manager, in terms of education, must have at least the VII level of qualification.

The expert-scientific board, consisting of Šahman Zaimović, Željka Bešović, Maja Stanković, as well as managers Milena Ljeskovic i Nemanja Turković, on July 27 they addressed the Board of Directors of CInMED, considering that their initiative to amend the Rulebook on the internal organization and systematization of workplaces is not in accordance with the Statute and Rules of Procedure of that institution.

Among other things, they claimed that Article 9 of the Rulebook, which stipulates that the director must have a scientific title or specialization in healthcare, is objective and justified.

After the amendment of the Rules and the election of Kontić as acting director, the Expert-Scientific Committee addressed the Assembly in early September, more precisely the Health Committee, and informed the president and members that the Board of Directors was brutally violating the law. They stated that the Rulebook on the internal systematization and organization of workplaces was amended contrary to the Statute, i.e. without the proposal of the director, and that the provision that a person who graduated from the Faculty of Health Sciences and has a scientific degree or specialization in health care is chosen as the head of the institution was deleted.

They also claim that the Government, in addition to the employee representative who was legitimately elected, appointed another employee to the Supervisory Board who "is in an obvious conflict of interest because he is in the management structure."

In a letter to the parliamentary committee, they stated that Kontić, although elected as acting director, does not even meet the legal requirement that the manager has at least five years of professional and managerial experience in the field of regulation of drugs and medical devices.

At the beginning of August, the Ministry of Health gave an opinion that the Law on Medicines prescribes the level of education qualification, but not the scientific field, and that the provision should not be interpreted as narrowly limiting only to the field of health orientation. They also answered that, as regards the question of the legal basis for the Ordinance as an act of lesser force prescribing conditions contrary to the provisions of the Law, they are not authorized to assess legality, but the constitutional court.

And the CInMED legal service considered that the previous rulebook, which prescribes, among other things, the faculty of health, was not in line with the Medicines Act. In the response to the address of the expert-scientific committee from the end of July, it is stated that this act is not in accordance with Article 15 of the Law regarding the director's education and work experience, as well as that the Board of Directors, as the highest governing body, adopts this act and has the authority to amend it, and that the possibility for the director to propose systematization changes does not affect the legal authority of the Supervisory Board as the author of the document. This opinion, among others, was signed by the current acting director Mira Kontić.

The practice is that the institute is managed by a doctor or pharmacist

The expert-scientific committee indicated earlier that the Law on Medicines, which was adopted after two years of harmonization with the European Commission and the EU legal acquis, prescribed the organization of the Institute on the basis of the regulatory bodies of EU member states and the European Medicines Agency.

"The European practice, as well as the practice of the region, is for such institutions to be managed by an expert in the field of health sciences, medicine and pharmacy", they announced. The Agency for Medicines of Serbia is headed by a doctor, previously this function was covered by a pharmacist, in Slovenia and Croatia the institutes are managed by a pharmacist, as well as in North Macedonia.