Yesterday, the Government of Montenegro made a decision to provide compensation of almost 500 euros to the president, deputy, members and secretary of the National Council for the Fight against Corruption.
"The president, deputy, members and secretaries of the National Council for the fight against corruption shall be compensated in the amount of 50 percent of the gross salary in Montenegro in the previous year, according to the data of the administration responsible for statistics," it was stated yesterday. adopted decision.
On February 22, the government decided to form a National Council, and representatives of 17 state institutions, three civil sectors, as well as representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Union of Municipalities participate in the work of that body.
The President of the National Council is the Deputy Prime Minister for the Political System, Judiciary and Anti-Corruption Momo Koprivica, and his deputy minister of justice Andrej Milović.
Director of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) and former member of several government bodies for the fight against corruption Vanja Ćalović Marković she told "Vijesti" yesterday that the decision on fees for membership in the National Council for the Fight against Corruption is "a confirmation that the representatives of the new government are establishing bad practices that were not used even by the previous regime".
She called on the Government to "repeal that decision".
"The highest representatives of the executive power have decided to award themselves additional fees for work that is already in their job description, and for which they receive high wages that can hardly be justified by the results so far in the fight against corruption, which has been reduced to platitudes and empty promises. Such behavior would be expected from Jelena Perović which has already shown that it is ready to use public office to extract as much personal benefit as possible by inventing bases for various additional revenues from the state budget. However, from the people who for years promised the citizens a departure from the practices of the previous regime, we expected that their motivation would be the fight for justice", said Ćalović Marković.
She points out that she is really unpleasantly surprised by the fact that this government is establishing such bad practices, and I call on the Government to repeal that decision.
"If the members of that Council do not have the motivation to fight against corruption without compensation, then they should not be in it either," said Ćalović Marković.
In addition to Koprivica and Milović, the National Council also includes Jelena Perović, as well as the Deputy Prime Ministers for Labor, Education, Health and Social Policy Srđan Pavićević and demographics and youth Dragoslav Šcekić.
There are seven more ministers in the Council - Danilo Šaranović (MUP), Novica Vuković (Ministry of Finance), Janko Odović (Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property), Marash Dukaj (Ministry of Public Administration), Vladimir Martinovic (Ministry of Tourism, Ecology and Sustainable Development), Saša Mujović (Ministry of Energy and Mining) i Vladimir Jokovic (Ministry of Agriculture).
He is also the director of the National Security Agency Boris Milić, as heads of the Tax and Customs Administration Sava Laketic i Vladimir Bulajic.
The council includes the Supreme State Prosecutor and the Chief Special Prosecutor Milorad Marković i Vladimir Novović, as well as the President of the Supreme Court Vesna Vuckovic.
The representative of the Chamber of Commerce in the Council is Nikola Vujović, Communities of municipalities Nemanja Vuković, and the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts Zoran Stojanovic. Representatives of the non-governmental sector are Almer Mekić from NGO EUROMOST, Dragana Jaćimović from the Institute Alternative i Vladimir Simonovic from CEMI.
The decision on the establishment of the National Council stipulates that the president, deputy, members and secretary are entitled to work compensation for the months in which the sessions of that body are held. The compensation is provided by the Government Decision on the criteria for determining the amount of compensation for the work of a member of the work body or another form of work.
Ćalović Marković, however, reminds that even before the Commissions for the fight against corruption and organized crime formed by the DPS governments, nor the Council for the fight against high corruption established by the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić, were not compensated for their work.
"I was a member of those Commissions and for a year I led the Expert Team of the Council, and I didn't even think of taking a single cent of the fee, because I considered it my duty to put my knowledge into the function of cleaning the state from corruption," said the director of MANS .
The draft law on the prevention of corruption is on public debate
Yesterday, the Ministry of Justice published the Draft Law on Prevention of Corruption, which, among other things, foresees a smaller scope of protection for persons who report corruption (whistleblowers), despite warnings from international addresses that their position should be defined by a separate legal act.
It is also a novelty that the officials, through an extraordinary report, will report assets and income of more than 10.000 euros, instead of the previous five.
Andrej Milović's department told "Vijesti" earlier that the text was prepared by a working group with 12 members.
"The twelve-member Working Group whose task is to draft the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Prevention of Corruption includes members from the Ministry of Justice, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office (VDT), the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), the Supreme Court, the High Court, as well as a representative of the Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister for the political system, judiciary and anti-corruption. After the initial formation of the Working Group, with the formation of the 44th Government, there were changes in the composition, in terms of achieving greater inclusivity and involving the judiciary and prosecutor's offices of all levels, which ensured a higher quality of the Working Group", explained the Ministry of Justice.
They also said that "the newspaper concerns the improvement of the general legal solution in accordance with GREKO recommendations, peer review mission reports and analyzes of the Council of Europe, which the public will have the opportunity to learn more about during the public hearing".
The public hearing will last 20 days from the day of publication of the call on the Internet station of the Ministry of Justice and the e-administration portal, and those interested can submit remarks, proposals and suggestions by leaving an address.
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