The first man of the Bar local administration, Dušan Raicevic, at today's session of the Bar Municipal Assembly, he presented a report on the work and finances of the president of the municipality and local services for the year 2023. Councilors who are also his party comrades evaluated the previous year as a record and multi-million dollar one, while opposition councilors criticized Raičević for several branches of business, and the Bosniak Party did not vote for the report.
With the votes of 19 MPs, two abstentions and two votes against from Milena Božović from Biram Bar and Aleksandar Lekić from the Movement for Change, the report and the final account of the Bar Municipality budget for the past year were adopted.
In his introductory speech, Raičević said that this report speaks of the efficiency of the local administration, the hard work of its officials, the fact that they created development policies wisely and strategically, and that Bar is a developing city where there is room for everyone.
"Those were the goals we set and are already producing results. What is the crown of such work is the budget of the Municipality of Bar for the year 2023, which planned funds of 31.650.000 euros, while total revenues were realized in the amount of 39.372.323,85 euros, or 24,4 percent more than planned. by which we continued the good practice of financial management", announced Raičević.
He presented all investment and infrastructure projects during 2023, disbursed funds on various bases - tenders, funds, municipal organizations.
As Raičević said, the successful cooperation of the Municipality of Bar with state administration bodies, international organizations, diplomatic and consular missions, friendly cities, the civil sector, the economic sector, the diaspora, humanitarian organizations, local community councils and individuals continued, through the initiation and implementation of joint initiatives and projects.
He also said that some projects and investments were completed despite the intransigence and insufficient cooperation of the central authorities.
Secretary for Finance of the Municipality of Bar, Ivana Backovic, she presented the Final Account of the budget of the Municipality of Bar for 2023, so, like Raičević, she spoke about all the projects of the Municipality of Bar that represent a burden on the budget, some of which are allowances for newborns, an increase from 100 to 450 euros, financing of parties, non-governmental organizations, support for female entrepreneurship, subsidies for artificially assisted insemination, support for sports and youth organizations...
"The most significant own income of the budget is based on the collection of real estate tax, which was collected in the amount of 9 million 698 thousand 160 euros or 14 percent more compared to the plan, which represents a record collection of this income," said Backović.
Of the ceded income, as she pointed out, the most significant realization is based on the personal income tax, which was realized in the amount of over four million, which is 104 percent compared to the planned predictions. Among other things, the collected tax revenues amount to more than 682.000 euros.
"The budget of the Municipality of Bar in 2023 achieved a surplus of income in the amount of 16.318.000 euros, which was transferred to the budget for 2024. The transfer of funds from the current year to the following year is conditioned by objective circumstances, given that the transferred funds are used to finance the implementation of capital facilities".
Secretary for Investments and Property, Stefan Shushter, he informed the councilors about the details of the capital budget, talking about all reconstructive, rehabilitation and investment works starting from the construction of residential and educational units to regular repairs on roads and residential streets.
Member of DPS, Emir Peričić, he said that this report represents a successful period with multimillion-dollar investments in infrastructure, and he mentioned the completed works on the rehabilitation of two boulevards worth 430.000 euros, the selection of contractors for the reconstruction of the regional road...
Valentina Minic, councilor of Democratic Montenegro, said that they heard a lot from Raičević about the great income and rationalization of expenditures, and noted that there were very large discrepancies between what was planned and what was achieved.
"The goal of budget planning is to give an approximate picture and guidelines, how much money, when and how you should spend it. Here I see that these differences are huge, and the difference between the income plan and the realized income is eight million, which is commendable, but the person who planned the budget did not do his job, so please let someone who knows this work do it in the future and that it will not be abnormal deviations and that we will at least know in advance what to expect", she said.
She added that there is a difference of eight million in the expenditure part, and that not all savings are good, and drew attention to the fact that the capital budget is being transferred again.
"You cannot refer to the presidential elections as an additional expenditure scheduled every five years. The number of workers in the local administration has increased, so it is not surprising that the budget allocated for salaries has increased, and this cannot be commented on in the final budget as a good thing," Minic concluded.
She also pointed out that the court executions were smaller than planned but "certainly abnormal", and based on the lawsuits, the Municipality of Bar owes more than seven million, which is an estimate, according to her, of almost half of the capital budget.
"These are alarming data and I don't know how the local administrative services work here, how you can solve this, only two lawyers took more than 30.000 euros from you. Because of this, the citizens are endangered and the citizens suffer," she said.
Minic emphasized that the day center for children with developmental disabilities and the Olympic swimming pool have been waiting for over two decades, which cannot be commended.
She welcomed the projects financed by the Municipality of Bar, which concern the promotion of gender equality, digital literacy and young people. She assessed that the funds allocated to support female entrepreneurship should be increased, since more than two thousand citizens applied for the competition, and around 20 projects were financed.
Raičević, responding to her allegations, said that the number of employees in the local administration is not enough because the population is constantly growing and increasing, and he will always advocate for higher salaries because he thinks that the officials, who carry a lot of responsibility on their backs, deserve it.
"The salary budget was increased, significantly, but not because the difference in the number made 22 more, but because we applied the provisions that were in force before February 15 of last year, and from February 15 we apply the provisions of the grant collective agreement for the administration and judiciary," he said.
He pointed out that the amount she mentioned, which concerns the money that the Municipality of Bar will potentially lose in court cases, is smaller than the amount they are currently demanding from other entities in the same way.
He concluded that the relationship and cooperation between the central government and the Municipality of Bar can and should be much better, and that he is proud of the local administration, which he claims is better than the national one.
Marko Stoiljkov from Movement Europe now said that he is happy about the construction of a new emergency block at the hospital in Bar, which Raičević announced.
The Bosniak party did not support Raičević's report
The Bosniak party did not vote for Raičević's report on the work and finances of the president and the services of the local administration, and this was announced during the session by the councilor of that party. Sehera Calendar.
She said that like other reports of the Municipality of Bar, this one also looks good at first glance, but when they scratch the surface, especially when it comes to infrastructure problems, then they have no reason to be satisfied.
"Tenders, design, projects, contracted works for those projects that, if we were lucky, should have been realized a long time ago, and our infrastructural problems are getting more complicated day by day. "We all see that in the stretch from the school "Mexico" to the turn towards the hospital, along the main road, a large number of buildings for collective housing are being built, which, at least according to your report, does not follow any road plan and any other infrastructure in that part," she said.
She emphasized that soon there will be a significant number of new residents on that stretch, which will generate new traffic, vehicles and pedestrians, and the road will remain the same. In addition, she stated, there are large crowds on this section throughout the year, and especially during the summer season, accompanied by traffic jams. it is clear to her that Raičević did not deal with the infrastructure in that part in his report either in previous years or during this year.
"I have to remind you that the Islamic Community of Montenegro has repeatedly submitted a request to the municipality for the allocation of a site for the construction of a mosque, at least twice during your mandate. You completely ignored those requests and thus discriminated against the very large population of Muslims in Bar who are autochthonous here," she said.
Because of this, Kalender told Raičević, the Bosniak Party decided not to support the report and will not stand behind it.
He replied that the subject of the amendment to the budget by the SDP club and the Liberal Party was the possibility to solve the problem of that main road through conceptual solutions and to work on it as well as on the conceptual solution for the road from the Sozina tunnel to Žukotrlica.
"Regarding the request for land allocation, i.e. location allocation, I invite the councilors to read all the provisions of the Law on State Property, to read the provisions of the Statute of the Municipality of Bar and then let's call things by their first names. "It is not the president of the municipality who disposes of municipal property, he is not the one who should give land and location to someone, it is you who decide on that, including councilor Kalender," was his answer.
The new Council of the local public broadcaster Radio Bar
At the nineteenth session, new members of the Council of the local public broadcaster Radio Bar were elected.
With the votes of 22 deputies, 18 from the government and two from the opposition, new members of the Council of Radio Bar were appointed and Neđeljko Đurović from the Bar Tourism Organization, Zdravko Gvozdenović from the public service in the field of culture and sports, founded by the Municipality of Bar Denisa Halimić from among educational institutions, Aldijana Ibrahimović from among non-governmental organizations based in the Municipality of Bar and in the fields of media, human rights and freedoms, protection of the rights of children and families and persons with disabilities, protection of consumer rights and ecology and Dragana Martinović from among the local communities.
In the first round of discussion, the head of the SO took a break because he Valentina Minic, councilor of Democratic Montenegro, requested the biographies of the proposed members claiming that they are not known to everyone.
After the biographies were delivered to them, she said that she did not fully agree that these people were not involved in politics, as the head of the DPS committee club said. Asim Andric, claimed during the presentation of the candidates in front of the selection and appointment committee. Minic pointed out that some of the proposed candidates were councilors in the local assembly in front of some parties.
"What is interesting to me is that five candidates were sought and we have just received five proposals. I would like these competitions to be better promoted and more transparent. "You can advertise it better so that as many people as possible sign up so that we can have the best Radio Bar Advice," she said.
Radomir Novakovic from the Biram Bar party said that these are non-party figures who used to be involved in politics.
The session was adjourned after almost eight hours of sitting, and will continue tomorrow as the councilors concluded three agenda items out of a total of 25.
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