Last week, the government commission for the distribution of funds from the budget reserve paid out 134 thousand euros in the name of various types of social assistance, the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) announced.
They said that this continued the practice of "all previous governments" to distribute that type of funds without clearly defined and transparent criteria before the election process.
"The abuse of social assistance during election campaigns is one of the most frequently used mechanisms of influence on potential voters and has been strongly criticized by political parties of the former opposition. For years, tens and hundreds of thousands of euros of social assistance were paid out of the budget reserve during pre-election campaigns, and cases like the Center for Social Work in Pljevlja only confirmed that this mechanism was key to achieving political advantage on the ground," the announcement states.
They said that MANS and other non-governmental organizations have been asking for greater transparency and clear criteria for the payment of social assistance for a long time, which is an appeal that "was not responded to even by the former opposition parties that now dominate the executive power".
"Instead, it continued according to the matrix created by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), so even during this pre-election campaign we have payments from the budget reserve that open up a huge space for abuse for political purposes," MANS points out.
Thus, as they state, of the mentioned 134 thousand euros, close to 50 thousand were paid to improve the material situation, 42 people received help in education in the total amount of about 21 thousand euros, while about 59 thousand were paid as help for treatment. Another five thousand euros were paid as aid to legal entities.
In this way, aid was paid to as many as 300 people last week, ranging from 300 to 1.500 euros. According to MANS, the largest number of beneficiaries, 93 of them, received assistance of 400 euros each.
They point out that the existing rulebook on the distribution of funds from the budget reserve dates from 2009, when it was adopted by the government of Milo Đukanović, and which, apart from the amount of money, does not define more detailed criteria according to which the money can be paid out, which "has until now created a huge space for abuses right before the elections".
"This latest in a series of non-transparent payments of budget funds during the pre-election campaign is a confirmation of the lack of political will to carry out essential reform when it comes to electoral processes in Montenegro. This does not only refer to the reform of the law, but above all to changing harmful practices with the help of which the previous government won the elections for the past three decades," according to MANS.
For such a thing, as they said, it is necessary to put the public before the private and party interest, judging that the political parties that make up the new executive power "obviously still do not have the readiness" for that.
"Exactly the abuse of social assistance along with the complete normalization of party employment in the public administration and state companies, are recognized as mechanisms that were completely taken over from the previous government and are used unwillingly to build their own political base at the expense of the budget and all citizens.
"It is a practice that must be stopped, and until then we cannot talk about a fair election process and the release of institutions that should serve citizens, not political parties and their leaders," the announcement concludes.
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