Director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Jelena Perović, signed the variables and compensation for overtime to herself in March, which is why the Budget Inspection of the Ministry of Finance ordered her to "remove these irregularities" and inform them about it within three days.
The order followed after the Budget Inspection carried out a control finding of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, and found the same irregularities that they pointed out earlier.
"The Budget Inspection states that the responsible person continued to repeat the irregularities, and that the instructions were not followed," emphasizes the Directorate for Budget Inspection.
In the finding, published on March 22, the Budget Inspection warned that Perović was writing overtime and variables for herself, for which she received almost 13.500 euros, which, the Budget Inspection determined, was contrary to the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector.
Novica Vuković's department sent the findings to the Special State Prosecutor's Office, and the prosecutor's spokesman Vukas Radonjić told "Vijesta" earlier that a criminal case was formed based on the submitted documentation.
"They didn't hold back"
At the end of March, the Budget Inspection again inspected the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption:
"After this indication, from the documentation submitted by the Agency to the Ministry of Finance, which was forwarded by the Directorate for Local Self-Government Financing and Wage Policy, it was established that the Director of the Agency made a decision on the variable part of the salary for the month of March and a decision to work longer than working hours (overtime) from 20.03.2024. The aforementioned solutions and decisions, in addition to other employees, were also made for the Director of the Agency, Jelena Perović. A subsequent, control, inspection review, and an inspection of the documentation submitted by the Agency to the Ministry of Finance, determined that the Director of the Agency did not refrain from taking actions that were determined as irregularities in the supervision procedure", the control finding of the Budget Inspection states.
It was specified that Perović signed the variable and overtime for March as an unauthorized person.
The director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption earned 13,5 thousand euros last year in addition to her salary. That amount refers to overtime and variables, and she collected an additional 8.700 euros for membership in the Working Group for determining the list of public officials.
The agency lodged an objection to the record of the control supervision of the Budget Inspection, and as it is stated, they pointed out that they were "denied a legal remedy".
In their remarks, the Agency also claims that the inspectors "exceeded their powers, assumed the role of a court, caused media pressure, creating a sensation among citizens."
The budget inspection concluded that Perović's remarks were unfounded.
"The Law on Inspection Supervision regulates the principles, method and procedure of inspection supervision, obligations and powers of inspectors... Certain issues of inspection supervision can be regulated by a special regulation... It follows from the above that the Budget Inspection, in carrying out inspection supervision, acts in accordance with special laws... In the performance of non-inspection supervision, the inspector primarily performs a preventive function, and undertakes administrative actions, when the purpose and goal of the supervision cannot be achieved with the preventive function", reads the response to Perović's remarks.
What is written in the first finding
According to the first findings of the Budget Inspection, which was published on March 22, Perović worked as many as 310 hours of overtime last year, for which she signed an amount of EUR 5.212,10, and she was also on duty on holidays - May 22 and 23 and May 13. and on July 14 last year, for which she paid herself daily wages in the amount of 536,78 euros.
Perović, according to the flow document, distributed tens of thousands of euros to herself and part of the employees last year, in violation of regulations.
Perović wrote herself overtime work and variables, for which she received almost 13.500 euros, which, according to the finding, is contrary to the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector. She collected an additional more than 8.700 euros for work in the Working Group for determining the list of public officials.
According to the data from the minutes of the Budget Inspection, for the period from January to June last year, Perović paid the members of the former Council at least 10.000 euros more than what is prescribed by law.
During the year, ASK paid 134.221 euros of variables to employees, almost 11.000 euros in January 2023, more than 15.000 thousand in February, 12.326...
Decisions on the variable part of the salary, according to the minutes, were made by Perović, and she herself is on the list of award winners.
"It was established that the provisions of Article 31, Paragraph 6 of the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector were not applied. The decision on earnings is made by the work body that elected and appointed them...", among other things, the minutes say.
After the findings were disclosed, the Agency accused the media of working against the public interest:
"If female budget inspectors can assume the role of the Constitutional Court, some media can also assume the role of regular courts, ruling in their own favor and against the public interest."
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