Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG) paid employees illegal salary incentives in the amount of more than 150.000 euros, in the period from June to October this year, the Media Center announced.
The practice started by the previous director general of RTCG Božidar Šundić was continued by the current director general Boris Raonic, said the director of the Media Center Goran Đurović.
From that non-governmental organization, they appealed to the RTCG Council with a request to stop the "illegal spending of funds" intended for the payment of wage incentives, the so-called variables.
The media center received documentation from the RTCG competent service, based on a request for free access to information, regarding the decisions of the general director of the RTCG for the period January - October 2021, which determine the amount of funds available for incentives based on the Rulebook on the part of earnings based on of achieved work results in RTCG. Also, according to Đurović, the competent service of the RTCG requested proposals for decisions of the heads of organizational units for the payment of part of the employee's salary based on the achieved results in work (stimulus), for journalists employed in the editorial office of the news program on the First Program of TVCG, for the period June-October 2021. . years.
"In the response of the competent RTCG service, it was stated that there are no proposals for decisions by the heads of organizational units for the payment of part of the employee's salary based on the achieved work results (incentive) for employed journalists in the editorial office of the news program on the First Program of TVCG, for the period June-October 2021. , that is, that such documents do not exist in the RTCG records".
"Regulations on the part of the salary based on the achieved results in work in JP Radio and Television of Montenegro (Number: 01 – 4845/1, dated 19.09.2018), stipulates in Article 13 that the head of the organizational unit prepares and submits a proposal for a decision for payment of a part of the employee's salary based on the achieved results in work (incentive). The proposal for the decision contains a proposal for the monetary amount of the incentive and an explanation for the payment of the incentive according to all the bases and criteria from the Ordinance. On the final amount and payment of a part of the salary based on the achieved results in the employee's work, except general director of RTCG, the decision is made by the general director of RTCG," he explained.
He said that this Article of the Rulebook refers to the fact that the Director General of the RTCG could not make decisions determining the final amount of funds for incentives without proposing decisions by the heads of organizational units, who "had to justify who and on the basis of which standards" set by the Rulebook fulfills conditions for receiving incentives.
"Based on the available data, it can be concluded that from June to October 2021, on average, around 30.000 euros (in the gross amount) were paid per month for incentives to employees without a proposed decision by the manager, i.e. without an explanation, which leads to the conclusion that it was illegally paid more than 150.000 euros," Đurović points out.
The RTCG Council, he notes, has the legal authority to take care of the legality of RTCG operations and mechanisms to "force the general director" to comply with the regulations that the Council adopts.
The Media Center expects, as he said, that the RTCG Council will "stop the illegal spending of funds and sanction the person responsible for the damage caused".
"Back in 2016, the Council of the RTCG adopted a Rulebook based on which the norm was determined that journalists in the RTCG should fulfill in order to realize the right to a monthly salary. Also, the same rulebook established a procedure according to which special merits in the accomplishment of work tasks employees can be paid incentives (so-called variables). These rules were introduced because it was noticeable that not all of the more than 100 engaged journalists participated in the creation of the program. During that period, the practice of publishing a monthly report on the fulfillment of norms and allocated incentives on the advertising boards in the RTCG building so that all employees can see how the stimulus funds are being spent."
"Also, the rules introduced at the time, which were not respected by the previous and not respected by the current management of RTCG, should serve to see which journalists do not meet the norm, thereby gaining grounds to declare themselves technologically redundant," Đurović concluded.
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