The deputy head of the cabinet of the Prime Minister, assistant to the Secretary General of the Government, secretary in the ministries is a more responsible and complex job than the job of a specialist doctor or a professor at the University of Montenegro.
This is the opinion of the interlocutors of "Vijesti", it stems from the Draft Law on Salaries in the Public Sector.
"The complexity of the job of a doctor who holds life in his hands, who, after high school, studies for this job between 10 and 13 years, bears criminal responsibility for negligent treatment or failure to provide medical assistance, has a lower labor cost than someone who only needs the qualification - preparation some political structure", the president of the Union of Medical Doctors told "Vijesta". Milena Popović Samardžić, commenting on the Draft Law on Salaries in the Public Sector.
That working document foresees a salary increase of about 30 percent for all public officials, as well as their closest associates, and it will cost the citizens 8,5 million euros annually.
And former vice-president of the Assembly Branka Bosniak points out that this draft law has degraded the intention to restore the reputation and status of the professions of doctors and university professors, who, in order to obtain that title, had to be brilliant and study and improve for decades.
"This Draft returned doctors and university professors to a lower rank than some political appointments, say advisers in cabinets, for which until recently they did not even ask for a university degree," claims Bošnjak.
It was on the initiative of the Union of Medical Doctors, and on the advocacy of Bosniaks, that two years ago the deputies made room for doctors and university professors in the Law on Salaries in the Public Sector. Until then, their salaries were calculated in accordance with the collective agreements for those areas.
Politics as a qualification
"Depending on the level of educational qualification, complexity of work, responsibility and other elements essential for the evaluation of a certain job, individual titles in the public sector are assigned to groups of jobs and expressed in coefficients... This is how Article 22 of the Draft Law begins. Through the analysis, we come to the conclusion that the higher price of work is mainly for those whose only qualification is readiness for a political structure", says Popović Samardžić.
She points out that the Deputy General Secretary of the Assembly has a salary coefficient of 25,8, the Advisor to the President of the Assembly 24,7, the Deputy General Secretary of the Government 25,8, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister 20,2, the Assistant Secretary General of the Government 20,2, secretaries in ministries 20,2.
"While the coefficient of the subspecialist is 20,7, and the coefficient of the specialist is 19. All previously mentioned elected, appointed and appointed persons are primarily party cadres. What kind of message is sent by this decision of the Government? The values that we have built for years, the politicians dismantled in five days. The values they promote are an expression of social irresponsibility. The established value system that the Government is promoting with this proposal results in the legitimization of ignorance, incompetence, the complete absence of responsibility for inaction or unrealized results," said Popović Samardžić.
Bosniak expects that this kind of treatment by the executive will be met with loud and clear resistance from the university and also from doctors.
"Who will leave the institutions, and there are fewer and fewer of them in public health anyway. Not to mention how humiliated and degraded the educators in secondary and primary schools are, with whom they bargained for an increase in the coefficient of a couple of percent, and 30 percent for themselves, Bošnjak emphasizes.
According to her, the Draft Law was prepared by "unknown people".
"This is supported by the fact that they forgot to include scientific advisers and senior scientific advisers from scientific institutes that are university units, and who are on the same rank as full or associate professors. They left only a scientific associate who is in the rank of assistant professor. Who knows, they must have thought: 'What are some advisers doing at the University of Montenegro?'. If it wasn't tragic, this level of frivolity and ignorance would be comical," said the Bošnjak.
When the Government affirms inaction, it sabotages the state
Milena Samardžić Popović warns that "not even the richest countries in the world can withstand this kind of system, not little Montenegro."
"Due to such deviations, today in the real sector we have people who are claiming jobs for which they have no competence and without any sense of responsibility, precisely following the example of our politicians and the Government, they are in very responsible jobs. The government affirms inaction, incompetence, and this is a reflection of state sabotage. In the past period, the salaries of certain doctors were targeted in the public in order to create the impression of enormous salaries. My earnings ratio as a specialist is 19, and my salary is around 1.500 euros. And that is the income of most colleagues, especially the unfit ones who bother all management and governing structures. And there are not a few of them," she pointed out.
And Bošnjak emphasizes that the Government is sending a message that "we should all be involved in politics."
"... That it is the most profitable, especially if you are close to a party leader, and that a degree and knowledge are not valued. Young doctors of science at UCG will be in a rank twice lower than a member of a commission. I'll be sarcastic: if you know less and don't have your own attitude, nod your head well and give in, buy a diploma and thereby fulfill that 'irrelevant' formality, you will be the most promising staff", Bošnjak concluded.
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