Ivan Grdinić, a pensioner member of the Zabjelo Local Association, said that the expenses of the Podgorica Pensioners' Association should be reviewed by the competent state authorities, because the pensioners' money is being spent in a dubious manner.
Grdinić said that the revenues of UP Podgorica for 2015 amounted to almost half a million euros, but that out of 50 local associations, few of them receive reports on how that money is spent.
"We, as the largest association, received a report only for the last three years," Grdinić said.
The President of the Association of Pensioners in Podgorica, Ilija Stanišić, denied that pensioners' money is being spent in a suspicious manner, stating that they never received any objection from Grdinić.
Stanišić pointed out that all local associations receive reports on how money is spent.
"We discussed the report for last year first at the board of directors, then at the Assembly that was held on March 13, where all the delegates from local associations were present. The report was submitted by the president of the financial commission and it was adopted without objections," Stanišić said.
Gradinić emphasized that the income from the Association based on membership fees for the Association of Podgorica and local associations amounts to 87.249 euros.
"Of this figure, 60 percent belongs to local associations, which amounts to 52.367 euros, and for the management board of the Association of Pensioners of Podgorica, 72 euros. "This kind of difference between one board of directors and 34.911,82 local associations in the distribution of money is scandalous," said Grdinić.
He said that the second expenditure from the income of the Association based on the membership fee for humanitarian aid to pensioners amounts to 67.862 euros. Although humanitarian aid is distributed exclusively through local associations, Grdinić claims that 67.862 euros were not distributed by the associations. He states that this money, which was supposed to be distributed every year, was never distributed, except in 2013. The Vice President of the Association, Ivan Mandić, said that last year and the year before last, 3.334 pensioners received humanitarian aid, and that pensioners have benefits for winter quarters, rest and recovery. That, as he said, is all financed by membership fees.
Grdinić said that 53.608 euros are spent on the "Assembly of the board of directors, election appointees, hired persons and taxes and surcharges on them, which is held once a year".
“We have to admit that they are well paid. The office building of that 'supreme headquarters' is charged 5.250 euros for maintenance, and this item is repeated every year..." Grdinić said.
Grdinić assessed that the construction of the retirement building, which is being done according to the "turnkey" system, and for which the Association states a cost of 7.827 euros, should also be reconsidered. He states that the document also contains dedicated expenditures of 8.000 euros, which are justified on paper, but he does not know what purpose they served.
"In the income and expenses for 2015, for the residential construction of pensioners in Podgorica, they state 767.340 euros in the income from the purchase of apartments, and in March 2017 they stated the true situation - 1.683.432 euros, when the affair about pensioners' apartments came to light" Grdinić pointed out.
Stanišić replied that neither the construction of the first nor the second building for pensioners was delayed, nor was there a single euro overrun.
Stanišić: SDT was given papers
Stanišić said that a month ago, they submitted all the documentation regarding the construction of buildings on UP 16, 17 and 18 to the Special State Prosecutor's Office for the purposes of the investigative procedure, but that the Prosecutor's Office has not yet announced anything about it.
"We don't have the burden that something was done 'under the grain'. Everything is transparent and there are decisions for everything at the PIO Fund, the Union of Pensioners of Montenegro and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare," said the president of the Association Stanišić.
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