The payment of wages to former employees of the Housing and Business Fund Agency of the Municipality of Pljevlja is (il)legal

Independent councilor Saša Ječmenica submitted a criminal complaint to the prosecutor's office due to the decision of the Municipality of Pljevlja to pay back wages to employees of the former Agency for Housing and Business Fund

17174 views 8 comment(s)
Saša Ječmenica, Photo: Goran Malidžan
Saša Ječmenica, Photo: Goran Malidžan
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The Municipality of Pljevlja will pay back wages to former employees of the Housing and Business Fund Agency of the Municipality of Pljevlja, which was liquidated a few years ago.

The decision was made by a majority vote of local parliament members at a session held at the end of last year, at the suggestion of Democratic Montenegro councilors. A total of 24 former workers will receive twelve salaries and they will be paid a total of 90.856 euros, that is, on average, each of them will receive 3.780 euros.

"Employee claims have been indisputably established in the bankruptcy proceedings," said the Democratic councilor. Milojica Tešović.

Independent councilor and lawyer by profession Saša Ječmenica claims that it is a unique decision in the system of local governments in Montenegro and that it is in contradiction with the Constitution. That is why he submitted a criminal complaint to the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, in order to stop the illegal spending of municipal money.

He said that on the list for the payment of money is the former head of the Agency who was convicted of a criminal offense because he used the funds of the entrance of residential buildings paid into special accounts for maintenance, for the payment of salaries of the Agency's employees. Ječmenica points out that the list also includes a former employee of the Agency who was a candidate on the board list of Democratic Montenegro in the last local elections.

"For this reason, the existence of political influence should be examined when proposing such a decision," claims Ječmenica.

He explained that the Agency managed special accounts for the entrance of residential buildings, into which the contributions of apartment owners were paid. He claims that the Agency has been withdrawing that money for years from special accounts of residential buildings in order to pay net wages to the Agency's employees, which is against the law.

"Even though this was done over a period of several years, one person was legally convicted because he paid net wages to employees of the Agency without authorization from special income accounts. As the company opened special accounts with Atlas Bank and after the introduction of bankruptcy in the bank, the funds in the accounts were blocked, and it turned out that a significant part of the funds from the accounts of residential buildings were missing and that they were used to pay the salaries of the Agency's employees... All these are the reasons that led to bankruptcy and liquidation. After the liquidation and return of 50 from the guarantee fund, 40 entrances of residential buildings sued the Municipality for the missing 418.000 euros that remained in the accounts of the blocked Atlas bank, that is, which were used by the Agency to pay employees' wages. Their lawsuit was legally rejected because the responsibility of the municipality of Pljevlja for the management of the entrance accounts of residential buildings was not established. This responsibility has been established for the Agency and the responsible person in it", said Ječmenica.

The adopted decision on the payment of arrears, he points out, is contrary to the Constitution of Montenegro, the Law on Business Companies, the Law on Bankruptcy, the Law on Local Self-Government, the Law on the Labor Fund and "represents a legal precedent in practice, and their adoption and implementation would represent and enable obtaining illegal property benefits".

"The Law on Business Companies stipulates that companies with limited liability are liable for their obligations up to the amount of the founder's stake, that is, up to the amount of their assets. In the legally binding decision of the court which rejected the request for the entrance of residential buildings, the court adhered to this position, which was referred to by the local self-government, that is, the obligation of the municipality to compensate the housing units was not established. The bankruptcy law prescribes the procedure and payment schedules, and the application of this law did not create the conditions for the settlement of claims for employees. In the Law on Local Self-Government, it is said that the municipality is not competent to use its own acts to regulate the procedure for exercising rights or claims based on the termination of the employment relationship with an employer against whom bankruptcy proceedings have been initiated," asserts Ječmenica.

The adopted decision, he adds, is not based on any substantive regulation by which its legality could be assessed within the meaning of Article 145 of the Constitution.

"The proposed decision is against morality because it enables illegal compensation in the Housing and Business Fund Agency of the municipality of Pljevlja. Voluntary assumption of the obligation in the amount of 90 euros towards the employees is contrary to the previously taken position of the municipality that it does not assume the obligations of the agency in relation to the 866 euros that housing entrances claimed in court proceedings. It is contrary to morality that employees who used the funds of apartment buildings for the payment of wages in a collective that hired third-party natural persons on the basis of a work contract, while employed regular workers went on sick leave or left work before working hours, should receive salary compensation, and that housing those who lost in court suffer permanent damage that was partly caused by unauthorized loans for salary payments. These people were already using apartment building tenants' funds to pay their wages. Your intervention is needed in order to stop the illegal actions of the Pljevlja Police Department," stated Ječmenica in his report to the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office.

The proposer of the decision, Milojica Tešović, said that everything that Ječmenica is talking about happened during the rule of DPS, the party of which Ječmenica was a member until recently.

Bonus video: