The media center announced that after 28 months the Administrative Court accepted their lawsuit and annulled the decision of the former Ministry of Economic Development from the 42nd government of Zdravko Krivokapić, confirming the first-instance decision of the Labor Inspectorate, which refused to carry out the evaluation of the legality of the procedure for appointing the general director of RTCG carried out in August in 2021.
"The Administrative Court pointed out in its judgment that the Ministry did not explain the factual situation in its decision and that it did not state all the facts that are important for the case, such as, for example, that the state authorities had already reviewed the decisions of the RTCG Council, which is important to consider in terms of interpretation Article 34 of the Law on RTCG, which was referred to by the Labor Inspectorate and the Ministry, refusing to control the legality of the procedure for appointing the general director of RTCG", the Media Center announced.
They add that the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which in the 44th government as a second-level body is responsible for the work of the Labor Inspection, has a legal deadline of 30 days to make a new decision and correct the mistake.
"We hope that the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and Minister Naida Nišić will not repeat the mistake of the former Ministry of Economic Development led by Jakov Milatović, and that the new solution will enable the Labor Inspectorate to implement its statutory powers and supervise the work of the RTCG Council. , the Ministry of Economic Development in November 2021 accepted the explanation of the Labor Inspectorate by which this body refuses to carry out an inspection in the process of hiring the general director of RTCG because it believes that based on the Law on RTCG, no state body, apart from the courts, is competent to evaluate the legality of decisions that adopted by the RTCG Council. The Labor Inspection and the Ministry of Economic Development misinterpreted the RTCG Act and paragraph 2 of Article 34, which prescribes - 'No one has the right to influence the work of a Council member in any way, nor is a Council member obliged to respect anyone's instructions in in connection with his work, except for the decisions of the competent court,'" reads the statement signed by the director of the Media Center, Goran Đurović.
That norm, he states, does not deal with the issue of assessing the legality of the decisions of the RTCG Council as a collective body and does not prohibit the review of the Council's decisions by state authorities, but indicates and is aimed at protecting the individual freedom of the members of the Council when making decisions, in order to reduce the scope for inappropriate influence.
"In the decision annulled by the Administrative Court, the Ministry of Economic Development does not provide any explanation regarding the special status of the RTCG Council in relation to the Constitution of Montenegro or the legal solution that exempts the decisions of this body from legality control. The RTCG Council is the governing body of the Public Enterprise Radio i Television of Montenegro, to which the Assembly of Montenegro, on the basis of the Law, has entrusted management tasks. No other public company founded by the state is exempted from the system of inspection supervision. If both the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and Minister Naida Nišić accept the interpretation of Article 34 of the Law on RTCG, as colleagues from 42 governments once did, this would mean that no state body can review the decisions of the RTCG Council, which, in our opinion, is wrong. If the Labor Inspection and other competent authorities cannot review the decisions of the RTCG Council, then this body could make a series of illegal decisions, violating the Law on RTCG as well as other regulations, and only a court decision could change the situation. If we are aware of the fact that similar proceedings before the courts take two to three years to become final, then this means that the illegal decisions of the RTCG Council cannot be corrected almost until the end of the term of office of the members of this body".
In the statement, Đurović adds that if the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare followed the views of its predecessors, the RTCG Council could make, for example, "a decision to extend the contract with the illegally elected general director for another 10 years, without the Labor Inspection being able to do anything do until the end of the court case, which can last who knows how many years".
"With its new decision, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare can influence the future correct interpretation of regulations that the RTCG Council will not put above all regulations in Montenegro, which is completely wrong. We hope that in the process of adopting a new decision, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare will take into account facts and information that they had and ignored in the Ministry of Economic Development from 42 governments, that until now there were controls on the work of the RTCG and review of the decisions of the RTCG Council, undertaken by state authorities. Namely, in 2011, the State Audit Institution (DRI) prepared " Report on the audit of the Annual Financial Report of JP Radio-Television of Montenegro for the year 2010. The annual financial report of the RTCG for the year 2010 is a document adopted by the Council of the RTCG, making a decision on its adoption, which indicates that the SAI reviewed the legality of the decision Furthermore, on page 36 of this Report, in point 7, it is stated that the contract (among others) of the then General Director must be harmonized with the Labor Law, which directly instructed the RTCG Council regarding the amendment of the contract that was previously signed with the general manager. Following the recommendations of the SAI, the RTCG Council amended the employment contract with the then General Director. We note that in the then Law on Public Broadcasting Services of Montenegro (Official Gazette of the Republic of Montenegro No. 79/08) in Article 31 there was an identical wording from Article 34 of the current/positive regulation".
Also, the statement added, the SAI prepared a report on the revision of the RTCG Annual Financial Report for 2021 and instructed the RTCG Council that new acts should be adopted to regulate the issue of the payment of variables to the general director and employees.
"If the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare interprets the Law on RTCG in such a way that no one except the court may review the decisions of the RTCG Council, then the DRI violated the regulation in 2011 and 2022 and illegally gave instructions to the RTCG Council. Based on the new, legal decision of the Ministry of labor and social care, it is necessary to enable the Labor Inspection to control the legality of the re-election procedure of the general director of RTCG from June 2023. If this does not happen, the consequence is that the illegality of the re-appointment of the general director of RTCG will be legally confirmed by the court right at the end of his mandate in June 2025. This would further mean that due to the refusal of the Labor Inspectorate and the Ministry to apply the law, RTCG General Director Boris Raonic will have held office illegally for four years and caused damage to RTCG of at least 160.000 euros. Everything that has been done so far in connection with the appointment of the current management structure of RTCG, it was illegal, starting from the decision of the Administrative Board and the Assembly in the procedure of appointing members of the Council of RTCG, through the appointment of the general director of RTCG. This is a clear indication that there is a strong political influence on RTCG".
Đurović concludes that if the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare makes the same decision again and prevents the Labor Inspectorate from controlling the decisions of the RTCG Council, it will be clear "that this time too the party interest is stronger than the rule of law to which all governments and political parties swear".
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