Bijelo Polje: Confused about jurisdiction due to conflict or prosperity?

The Municipality of Bijelo Polje has entrusted more city planning work to the Parking Service this year, instead of the Komunalno “Lim” company, even though this is not their primary activity. The opposition claims that this is due to poor relations between the Mayor and the Municipality. Petar Smolović and Municipal Muradif Grbović, while the Municipality says that the decision was made “to relieve the burden” on that company. On the other hand, Director Grbović states that he does not know why these jobs were entrusted to another municipal company.

"The best example of the malfunctioning of local government in Bijelo Polje is seen in the relationship between the Mayor of the Municipality, Petar Smolović (DPS) and the director of the utility company, Muradif Grbović (BS). Citizens suffer the most due to the simmering conflict, because the legally defined obligations of the utility company, maintenance of public areas, cleaning of streets, squares and sidewalks, delineating parking lots and the like, are carried out by the Parking Service and the Protection and Rescue Service, on Smolović's orders," said the Democrat councilor Marko Djukic, noting that this is a conflict of public and private interest.

Smolović said he was not competent for the issue and referred it to the Secretary of Housing and Communal Affairs. Dusko Ružić, who, like the director of the Parking Service Ismar Corovic, said that the only reason was to relieve the burden on the Municipal Department, "which does its job excellently but has too many obligations."

The director of the Municipal Service, Grbović, said that he did not know why the tasks under their jurisdiction were transferred to the Parking Service. He said that he was aware that certain tasks previously performed by the Municipal Service were performed by other companies, but that he did not know why these tasks were assigned to companies that do not have that type of obligation in their activities.

According to unofficial information, Komunalno Lim is losing around 150 thousand annually, or one monthly salary for all employees, due to jobs that have gone to another company.

Asked whether Komunalno is at a loss due to awarding jobs to other companies, Grbović said that they do not only depend on public interest for the needs of the founders, but also do jobs for third parties, which are on the rise.

"In less than two years, Komunalno Lim has invested around a million euros in its fleet, mostly from its own budget, but there are also significant funds from the Municipality," said Grbović, who did not want to comment on whether awarding jobs to other companies casts a shadow on cooperation with the Municipality, emphasizing that he does not want to go into the background of the reasons for awarding work to other companies, especially since he spoke on the subject with the Mayor of the Municipality, Smolović.

Ćorović said that in agreement with the Municipality and the Municipal Department, they took over the work of arranging the parks.

"These tasks were entrusted to our company by the competent Secretariat as part of a coordinated effort by the local government to respond quickly and efficiently to the needs of citizens. Due to the excessive workload of the Public Utility Company, certain smaller and technically less demanding tasks, such as repairing fences, painting benches and arranging smaller park facilities, were assigned to us, with a clear division of responsibilities. In addition to these additional tasks, Parking Service continues to regularly perform tasks within its core competence, including delineating horizontal signage, maintaining traffic signs, traffic lights, bollards and ramps, all in accordance with the contracts we have with the competent Secretariat," said Ćorović.

Ružić said that the Municipal Department has too many obligations, and that new ones include asylum and road rehabilitation.

"The citizens' request is that we activate all services and companies to help together and fix and improve the city's infrastructure as quickly as possible. For example, in addition to the municipal service, firefighters also wash the city and water green areas, the Parking Service outlines the signage, the Secretariat for Sports is maximally involved and helps with sports areas. We are all together for a more beautiful city and every public company must be mutually coordinated in the service of citizens," said Ružić.

He reminded that there is a budget item "transfers to public enterprises for the maintenance of public areas" and that the performer (public enterprise) can also perform additional utility services.