Democrats: With the draft law, they want to keep the DPS staff in the municipalities

The current government is trying with the Draft Law on Local Self-Government to keep its staff in the municipalities, and quality young highly educated people remain unemployed, according to Democratic Montenegro.

The new legal solutions, as announced at the press conference of the party, require eight years of work experience, compared to the previous five.

A member of the Municipal Assembly (SO) of Pljevlja, Nikola Rovčanin, stated that, if someone has not performed any managerial function during eight years of work experience, he is obliged to attend a six-month course organized by the Government.

According to Rovčanin, this is another type of centralization.

"The draft can also achieve the deprofessionalization of local government, because raising the scale in certain municipalities that are scarce with highly educated staff will result in only formal filling, while essential quality staff will still remain at the Bureau," Rovčanin assessed.

The draft, he stated, closes the doors of municipalities in Montenegro to the largest number of young highly educated personnel.

As Rovčanin said, in addition to the provisions of the adopted Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, which represents a framework in which the dominant cadre of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) can be positioned, the Draft Law went one step further.

"Under the pretext of "professionalization", the scale of necessary work experience for employment and performance of functions in local self-governments is increased. Attempts are being made to increase the rampart around the party's adopted staff to a height that new generations of young people cannot jump over," Rovčanin said.

According to him, the professionalization of local self-government, as planned by the Government, "looks more like DPS-ization".

He believes that the proposed legal solutions correspond only to those who have already entered the local government system, which, he says, can also be said for the state administration. "And how professionally that staff performed its duties is evidenced by the state in which the municipalities where the DPS is in power are found today."

Rovčanin emphasized that in a country where more than 20 people are unemployed in the northern region alone, unattainable conditions cannot be introduced for young university graduates, because they are a chance to move this country from the most responsible positions.

Bojan Krvavac, member of the Municipal Council of Pljevlja, indicated that according to the draft, eight years of work experience, or three years of work experience in management positions, are required for filling the positions of heads of bodies (secretaries, directors of administrations).

"If the draft is adopted, local self-governments, especially those in the north, will turn into local administrations, which will be in charge of the mere implementation of government acts, without a shred of independence," Krvavac believes.