The President of the Board of the Regulatory Agency for Energy and Regulated Utilities (REGAGEN), Branislav Prelević, has been illegally receiving salary supplements for years, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) found.
Those supplements, according to official data, amounted to more than 6.100 euros last year.
KAS makes decisions for each official separately, so it is certain that similar violations of the Law on Prevention of Corruption will be found for his former and current colleagues in the Board of Directors for receiving salary supplements that they assigned to themselves by internal acts.
Unofficial sources of "Vijesti" claim that this decision of the KAS could open a "Pandora's box" with compensations for salaries and other officials to the management structures of the agencies, which are appointed by the Parliament of Montenegro.
The initiative was submitted to ASK on April 18 by Miomir Škpelja, the former deputy director of REGAGEN, now an employee of that agency.
According to the documents that Škopelja previously submitted to the editorial office, after numerous emergencies, the former management headed by Jelena Perović replied to him in a letter in July that "there are no concrete elements for initiating proceedings before the Agency".
After that, Škopelja again asked for a decision to be made, and later he informed the new ASK Council and Acting Director Dušan Drakić about it and repeatedly asked for the process before the Agency to end.
The official claims that he was working legally
In the decision published yesterday on the KAS website, it is stated that Prelevic, among other things, did not ask the Agency for its opinion on whether he is in a conflict of interest if he votes for acts that also provide him with salary supplements.
Prelevic earned 22.263 euros last year based on wages and more than 6.100 euros in salary supplements.
"It is established that Branislav Prelević, while performing the function of the Chairman of the Board of the Regulatory Agency for Energy and Regulated Utilities, violated... the Law on the Prevention of Corruption due to the fact that as a public official appointed by the Parliament of Montenegro, he benefited in the form of monetary compensation - salary supplement, based on the Rulebook on evaluation of work performance dated 09.05.2017. of the Rulebook on the conditions and method of obtaining the variable part of earnings from 04.05.2018. and the Rulebook on Amendments to the Rulebook on Conditions and Ways of Realizing the Variable Part of Earnings from February 20.02.2020, XNUMX. which he adopted as one of the three members of the Board of the Agency, and for which he also voted as the chairman of the Board, without excluding himself, without first asking for the opinion of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, even though he had a legal obligation to do so," he states. in the decision of the ASK.
According to the document, Prelevic, responding to the allegations from the initiative, essentially pointed out that he "acted in accordance with the provisions of the Law and the Statute of the Agency and that the Law on Prevention of Corruption does not apply to the situation when a public official as a member of a collective body of public authority decides on passing regulations and general acts in accordance with the powers prescribed by law".
"Furthermore, the statement states that, according to the provisions of the Agency's Statute, the authority to adopt internal, general acts is given to the Board of the Agency, namely acts that regulate internal work, establish internal organization, regulate labor relations, salary coefficients and other employee benefits , and prescribes the method and criteria for determining the variable part of the salary, and that although each of them affects the rights and obligations of the president and members of the board, that the adoption of these general acts by the board is not considered an act in private interest", the decision states. Prelevic, the ASK specifies, also announced that each of the regulations was adopted on the basis of the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector, which prescribes that the conditions and method of exercising the right to a variable part of the salary for employees in independent and regulatory bodies are determined by an act of the competent authority of these of legal entities, in the specific case of the Board of the Agency.
He had to ask for an opinion
According to the decision, the ASK established during the investigation that Prelevic has held the position of President of the Board of Directors of REGAGEN since 2011, and that he was appointed by the Parliament of Montenegro.
It was established that he participated in the discussion and voted for all three ordinances, and the laws on energy and wages in the public sector were also consulted.
"...Opinions on the existence of conflicts of interest in the performance of public functions and restrictions on the performance of public functions and decisions on violations of the provisions of this law relating to the prevention of conflicts of interest in the performance of public functions, restrictions on the performance of public functions, gifts, sponsorships and donations and reports on revenues to the property of a public official, which the Agency provides, i.e. adopts in accordance with this law, are binding for the public official...", the decision emphasized.
KAS warns that the Law on the Prevention of Corruption stipulates that "if a public official in the authority in which he performs a public function participates in the discussion and decision-making in a matter in which he or a person related to him has a private interest, he is obliged to declare the existence private interest informs the other participants in the discussion and decision-making before participating in the discussion, and at the latest before the start of decision-making".
"...The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption did not accept the statement of the appointed person, bearing in mind that regardless of the fact that he participated in the discussion and decision-making, he participated in the adoption of a general act, as an individual, as a public official, and on the basis of that act he benefited, and that he did not requested an opinion from the Agency", the decision concludes.
Bonus video:
