In the absence of legal arguments, with which the Ministry of Defense would attack the legality of the decision of this Commission, because there are simply none, they are used to discredit the president and members of the Commission, in terms of political labeling and intimidation, the Government Appeals Commission announced today.
They reacted to yesterday's announcement by Marko Marković, the state secretary in the Ministry of Defense, who said, among other things, that "DPS soldiers have shown that they are very up-to-date on duty when it comes to party interests, even at the cost of the law."
Marković said this on the occasion of the decision of the Government Appeals Commission, which annulled the decision of the Minister of Defense Dragan Krapović to terminate the active service of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army of Montenegro, Brigadier General Zoran Lazarević.
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In today's statement delivered by the President Dejana Zeković, the Appeals Commission stated that at the very least, it would be expected of a responsible state official to challenge the decision with arguments, which would speak of his professionalism and competence.
"The reason for the serious accusations against the President and the members of the Complaints Commission of the Government of Montenegro is the decision of the Commission which annulled the decision of the Ministry of Defense on its merits. The decision of the Ministry of Defense did not decide on the termination of the active service of Brigadier General Lazarevic Zoran, as it is wrongly stated in the announcement of the State Secretary, it has already been decided that the final and enforceable decision, by which Zoran Lazarević, Brigadier General, as Chief of the General Staff of the Army of Montenegro, has been extended the duration of his service in the Army of Montenegro, until June 8.6.2025, XNUMX, is written in the announcement of the Commission.
They added that "deciding on the appeal of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army of Montenegro, they found that there is no legal basis for such a decision of the Ministry, since the first-instance authority, in the appealed decision, did not refer to any material regulation, which would be the basis for making solutions as given in the enacting terms".
"In the case of the above, the Commission made a decision on the merits, because it is a procedure that was initiated ex officio, and not at the request of a party, which further means that the authority, if it considers that there are legal prerequisites, can initiate a new procedure at any time ", the announcement reads.
They stated that the Appeals Commission, in this composition, was appointed in 2022, after a transparently conducted public competition and selection process from a total of 27 registered candidates.
"In its work, it is autonomous and independent, and makes decisions exclusively by applying the law and does not think about the political context when making decisions, as presented by the state secretary in the press release. The work reports for 2022 and 2023, which was adopted by the Government of Montenegro, as well as the highest level of confirmed decisions by the Administrative Court of Montenegro," said the Government's Appeals Commission.
They said that "the tendentious placement of the Commission's decision for political purposes, which is used to score political points, is a worrying sign of the existence of an atmosphere in which inappropriate influence and pressure is exerted on the independent and independent work of this Commission".
"Finally, the Complaints Commission ends any further, possible discussion on this topic and address to the media, because we do not want to be part of anyone's political confrontations," the announcement concludes.
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