The Protection and Rescue Service of the Capital City of Podgorica and the Fire and Rescue Service of Nikšić have regained the right to service and maintain fire extinguishers, a job previously denied to them by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP).
"The servicing of fire extinguishers was arranged only for private companies, while professional services were denied that right... I am proud to inform the Montenegrin public that the Protection and Rescue Service of the Capital City was the first to receive valid documentation for the legal servicing of fire extinguishers. "Unfortunately, due to the obstructive behavior of some in the Directorate (for protection and rescue, MUP), we exercised this right through the court and we managed to completely annul the illegal acts passed by the Directorate", the commander told "Vijesta" Goran Janković.
His colleague from Nikšić, the commander of the Fire and Rescue Service, Slavko Tadic, says that thanks to the decision of the Administrative Court, "the money from servicing goes to the budget of the Municipality, and not to private pockets, as before".
Addressing the court
At the end of May, the Administrative Court passed a verdict that accepted the lawsuit of the Podgorica Service and annulled the decision of the MUP from October 2021. Previously, in July 2021, the Capital City Protection Service submitted an application to the Ministry of Interior to carry out testing, servicing and maintenance of fire extinguishers, but that department rejected their request.
Article 99 of the Law on Protection and Rescue stipulates that "testing, servicing and maintenance of fire extinguishers, which are in circulation or in use, can be carried out by companies, other legal entities and entrepreneurs who are registered and authorized to perform this activity by manufacturers and who have the appropriate equipment and professional staff in accordance with the regulations issued by the Ministry". In Article 99 a, among other things, it is also said that, before starting work, proof of registration in the register of business entities must be submitted to the MUP.
In relation to that, the Ministry of Interior requests the protection services to submit proof of registration in the commercial register (CRPS) for the performance of work related to fire extinguishers. From the Capital City, in the lawsuit against the decision of the MUP, they stated, among other things, that the Service is not a business entity and that they could not even provide such evidence. Instead, they submitted the Decision on the Organization and Mode of Operation of the Administration of the Capital City and the Act of the Statistics Administration with the ID number.
The MUP did not, as the Capital City stated in the lawsuit, take into account the facts presented in the oral hearing that "the Capital City, municipalities, and their bodies and services are not registered in the register of business entities in accordance with the Law on Business Companies, but in accordance with According to the Law on Local Self-Government, the municipality has the status of a legal entity, which is confirmed by the Law on the Capital City and the Statute of the Capital City".
In the lawsuit, they also stated that the Ministry of Internal Affairs strictly formally considered the request submitted by the Protection Service and that they ignored the fact that "the capital is given the status of a legal entity by law, not by registration in the register of economic entities."
In the explanation of the verdict, the President of the Council Ljiljana Šoškić, among other things, stated that "the obligation to register in the CRPS according to the Law on Business Companies is provided for companies and entrepreneurs, but not for other legal entities, which is the case in this particular case".
The fact that they had to ask the court to return their job of maintaining fire extinguishers is just one of the problems that the Podgorica Protection Service and the Nikšić Fire and Rescue Service cite in relation to cooperation with the MUP, that is, the Directorate.
Theirs, and the public reaction of the commander of the Herceg Novi Protection and Rescue Service Zlatko Ćirović they followed after "Vijesti" published an article on August 21 about the state of the protection and rescue system ("When it gets congested, we grab our heads"), in which, among other things, the part from the Report for 2022, which adopted by the Government in April.
In that report from the Ministry of Interior, i.e. the Directorate, among other things, they stated "that certain protection and rescue services, i.e. their commanders, such as Podgorica, Nikšić and Herceg Novi... reduced cooperation to a minimum or completely stopped it, which is inadmissible”.
"It is inadmissible that the Directorate functions in this form, that they do not respect the profession, that every summer season when the risk of fire is increased they do not have an Air-helicopter unit ready, it is inadmissible that the Directorate has been turned into a statistical institution, that the municipal protection and rescue services do not have significant support from the Directorate...", Ćirović commented on those allegations.
According to him, the Protection and Rescue Directorate should be the main bearer of the protection system in every sense, "which cannot be said to be the case at the moment".
"The main bearers of the protection and rescue system in Montenegro are the municipal protection services," he said.
The MUP stated in the Report on the State of the Protection and Rescue System for 2022 that the Air-Helicopter Unit "was out of commission for almost a whole year", citing a lack of finances as the reason.
"The directorate does not listen to the profession"
Ćirović also said that the legal regulations for the protection and rescue system are not adequate, that the Law on Protection and Rescue from 2007 has undergone several amendments over the years, and that all municipal services have repeatedly asked the Directorate to initiate the adoption procedure new laws "in order to improve the system of protection and rescue through legislation".
"As operatives with many years of experience in the field of protection and rescue, we recognized that the law in force has many shortcomings, and showed a good will to make the capacities (experience and expertise) from all municipal protection services available to the Directorate, in order to improve the system. "All our attempts ended before they started, and the only reason is the constant obstruction of the Directorate," he said.
He also said that they communicated with the Directorate regarding the adoption of new laws and improvements in the functioning of the protection system through the Chamber of Engineers.
"And those talks ended without results, where the Directorate did not find understanding even when it comes to the profession", said Ćirović and added that the problem of the protection and rescue system is "several decades old" and that everyone should work together in order to improve it "for the benefit all citizens and tourists staying in Montenegro".
Slavko Tadić says that "a directorate that does not have laws, a school for training firefighters and rescuers, a fire safety inspection, an organized system of fire-rescue units, national teams for various hazards... gives itself the right to write reports and give assessments".
The commander of the Podgorica Service, Goran Janković, said that "it is very difficult to have a conversation with someone who does not understand the issue":
"Neither has he ever led operational affairs, but we hope that in the coming period we will see serious changes in the protection and rescue system, which will aim to improve the entire system."
Commanders Janković, Tadić and Ćirović agree that the most important thing is that the cooperation between the services is good.
"All the services in Montenegro cooperate flawlessly... everyone immediately helps each other," says Janković.
They told the citizens and tourists that, despite all the problems, they are at their service and can count on the municipal protection and rescue services at any time.
They are demanding termination of the contract for the National Training Center
In relation to the allegations from the annual report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, that is, the Directorate for Protection and Rescue, that cooperation with individual commanders is poor or non-existent, the commander of the Podgorica Service says that it was he who gave the consent for the MUP to be given the use of the premises for the National training center.
The national training center is located in a part of the building of the Podgorica Protection Service, on an area of over 1.400 square meters.
Janković claims that until today they have not received "valid documentation - the Act on the establishment of an educational institution, the Decision issued by the competent Ministry for its registration, as well as all other case files in accordance with the Law".
"Due to non-compliance with contractual obligations and negligent attitude towards this training center, the contract termination procedure was initiated, and the capital continues to pay electricity and other utilities for the 'allegedly' registered training center," the commander of the Podgorica Protection and Rescue Service told "Vijesta".
They also established inspection services
The Podgorica and Nikšić Fire and Rescue Services also established their own inspection services
"We established the inspection service and our inspectors who, for the first time in the last 20 years, established in a short time the catastrophic situation in which our municipality is in terms of fire protection, all thanks to the Directorate", said the commander of the Nikšić firefighters and rescuers.
According to Janković, the Capital City Protection and Rescue Service is the first service in Montenegro to employ two inspectors.
"Which reveal the catastrophic situation in this area every day, and so far we have issued several misdemeanor orders, as well as a large number of indications of irregularities," he told "Vijesta".
Training program verified only in 2022.
Interlocutors from the municipal protection services also suggested the need for training firefighters and rescuers.
The Law on Protection and Rescue recognizes a firefighter-rescuer as someone who is younger than 25 years old, who is psychophysically healthy and who has at least a third degree, without the obligation to be educated before entering the protection service.
In December 2022, four years after it was submitted to the Center for Professional Education, the professional training program for the profession of firefighter-rescuer was verified. According to the program, in addition to the general requirements, candidates must also undergo training - theoretical and practical, and prove the acquired knowledge and skills in a test.
The professional training program for the profession of firefighter-rescuer envisages training lasting three months, of 300 hours, of which 201 are practical and 99 are theoretical.
The police academy in Danilovgrad, as announced in July, received a license to implement that program. As they said at the time, the training will begin in the fall - the theoretical part in the Police Academy, while the practical classes with exercises will be held in the premises of the Protection and Rescue Service in Nikšić.
Earlier, the MUP announced that the practical part of the training will be organized at training grounds not far from Podgorica, and the theoretical classes will be held in the premises of the National Training Center, which was opened last fall in Podgorica.
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