Perović continues to receive a special allowance: Even in house arrest, she is honored with a salary

Director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) Jelena Perović she continues to receive a special allowance in the amount of 30 percent of the basic salary, even though she has been under house arrest for almost three months due to the suspicion that she damaged the state budget by more than 100.000 euros.

That special allowance was provided to her and her assistants by the Government in August 2022 Dritan Abazović, while the Government Milojko Spajić is silent on questions related to the revision of that decision.

"There are more than enough grounds for the Government of Montenegro to immediately suspend part of the decision related to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, and not only because of the fact that the director of the ASK is under house arrest, and one of the assistants has been illegally in the position of executor for years. duties", the director of the Research Center of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) told "Vijesta" yesterday. Dejan Milovac.

On June 24, the editors asked Spajić's cabinet whether they would reconsider the decision of the 43rd Government by which Perović and her assistants Nina Paović i Boris Vukašinović grants the right to 30 percent of the basic salary on earnings, but we have not received an answer.

The administrative inspection of the Ministry of Public Administration at the beginning of June established that Vukašinović was illegally appointed to the position of assistant director of the Agency several times.

The budget inspection of the Ministry of Finance, a department of the Spajić Government, found that the director of the Agency illegally paid herself variables, overtime hours, compensation for work in commissions of that institution, compensation for work on holidays...

The Special State Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case after the Ministry of Finance submitted the results of the Agency's control, which was carried out by the Budget Inspection.

"The findings of the Budget and Administrative Inspection unequivocally showed that the director violated the law in order to secure benefits for herself and other persons, and it is to be expected that the judiciary will adequately process these facts. However, what represents a much bigger problem here is precisely the inertness of the Government of Montenegro to recognize the lack of concrete results in the work of the ASK and the complete absence of any basis for the continuation of the payment of the so-called special allowance", says Milovac.

He emphasizes that Spajić's government should not have a dilemma regarding the revision of the predecessor's decision from two years ago.

"And while it may have been unclear why the administration of former Prime Minister Dritan Abazović decided to provide incentives to Perović and others from ASK despite the huge number of unsolved cases, which include Milo Đukanović, Vesna Medenica, Veselin Veljović i Milivoj Katnić, the government of Milojko Spajić, after everything we had the opportunity to see, should not have a dilemma about whether to continue with the practice of rewarding violations of the law and the absolute inaction of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption," Milovac pointed out.

At the end of June, the Administrative Court annulled the decision of the Ministry of Finance from April 15, which ordered Director Perović to eliminate irregularities and revoke her decision that she deserved the variable and overtime compensation in March, arguing that the department did not issue a decision on one of the requests for exemption of female budget inspectors.

Minister of Finance Novica Vuković he acted according to the court's verdict, issued a new decision and rejected that request again.

"... Bearing in mind that the party did not submit evidence pointing to the reasons for the exemption of female budget inspectors from Art. 48 of the Law on Administrative Procedure, as well as the fact that the public legal body is obliged to prevent any abuse of the party's rights in the administrative procedure, the conditions have been met for the request to be rejected as unfounded in terms of the prohibition of the abuse of rights in the administrative procedure", states Vuković's new decision .

The Agency then announced that "the Minister of Finance would apologize to the citizens with integrity for the negligent work of his department".