Otašević was illegally elected, but remains in office

Appointment Vladimir Otašević for the acting director of RTV Podgorica at the end of December 2023 was illegal.

The Basic Court in Podgorica annulled the decision to appoint the acting director following a lawsuit filed by the candidate. Dubravka PerovicHowever, the claim was rejected in the part that requested the re-election of the acting director within 15 days from the date of the finality of the verdict, because in the meantime Otašević had been elected as the executive director for a full term.

Perović sued RTV Podgorica, claiming that she met all the criteria required for acting director, but also that she was employed by them, and that she was better than Otašević according to all references.

Six candidates applied for the position of acting director of City Television two years ago, four of whom are from that media outlet - Rade Vojvodic, Dubravka Perovic, Boris Đurović i Balša Rakočević, and two outside that company - Otašević and Andrijan Kadi. The Council concluded at the session, after reviewing the documentation submitted by the candidates from RTV Podgorica, that their applications were incomplete and that these candidates did not meet the requirements pursuant to Article 45 of the Decision on the Establishment of the Company, and voted for each candidate individually, with five voting for Vojvodić and four voting for the other three candidates, and that their applications were approved, with a member of the Council Aleksandar Djurišić expressed an opinion.

The judgment, among other things, notes that in August 2023, the Assembly of the Capital City adopted the Decision on Amendments to the Decision on the Establishment of RTV Podgorica, and Article 45 defines that a person who is a citizen of Montenegro, residing in Montenegro, who has at least a VII1 level of educational qualifications and a minimum of 10 years of experience with a higher education degree, of which at least five in management positions in areas relevant to the performance of activities, may be appointed as the executive director.

Article 48 of the Decision regulates the termination of the term of office of the Executive Director, while Article 48a was added, which defined that in the event of resignation or dismissal of the Executive Director, the Council shall appoint an acting director from among the employees who meet the requirements for the Executive Director and provide written consent for the appointment. It was also defined that a person from outside the company who meets the requirements for the Executive Director will be appointed as the acting director, if there is no such candidate in RTV Podgorica.

The court concluded that the cited provisions stipulated the obligation of the Council to primarily appoint an acting director from among the company's employees who meet the requirements for executive director, and only if such a person does not exist was there the possibility of appointing a person from outside the company who meets the requirements.

According to the verdict, the Council did not properly evaluate the application of Dubravka Perović. Interpreting the evidence, and taking into account the content of the minutes of the session, it follows that she has many years of work experience, considering that she worked at Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG) for 11 years, four months and 29 days, at TV Vijesti for eight years, and after that at the public broadcasting service RTV Herceg Novi. In addition, the verdict states that at RTCG she was an editor in the internal political editorial office of Radio Montenegro, and since 2007, editor of the program block, and then served as executive director of RTV Herceg Novi.

"The position of this court is that the terms executive director and show editor belong to the category of management positions, for which reasons the Respondent's Council did not undoubtedly establish that the Respondent does not meet the requirements to be appointed as acting executive director, and given the fact that at the time of the election of the acting executive director at RTV Podgorica, the requirement was residence in Montenegro, at least VII1 level of educational qualification and at least 10 years of experience, of which at least five in management positions in areas relevant to the performance of activities...", the judge's ruling reads. Ivana Žujović.

The RTV Podgorica Council was obliged to determine whether there was an employee in the company who met the requirements to be appointed as acting director, and it had to check this in an efficient and convenient manner.

According to the verdict, the content of the minutes from the first constituent session shows that "upon reviewing the documentation submitted by the candidates from the company, which was read by the chairperson, it was determined based on the review of the documentation that their applications were incomplete and that the aforementioned candidates did not meet the requirements, without stating what the incompleteness of the application was.

From this statement, the verdict states, it cannot be concluded with certainty whether the four candidates, employed by the company, meet the requirements or not, because in the case of an incomplete application, it is unclear how the Council determined that they do not meet the requirements for acting director, so this statement by the Council is contradictory.

"In addition, it has already been pointed out that the procedure for selecting an acting director is not prescribed, and this is not an advertisement/competition. All of this should be linked to the fact that the provisions of the Labor Law also stipulate the obligation of the employee to submit, and the employer to keep, the work record book for as long as the employment relationship lasts, and it indisputably contains data on educational qualifications and professional development, specialization and work ability, data on the establishment and termination of employment, and data on the jobs performed by the employee. Therefore, the defendant, as an employer, was and could have been familiar with the relevant work experience of its employees," it states.

The court's final conclusion is that the RTV Podgorica Council did not properly evaluate Dubravka Perović's application and that the decision to appoint Otašević as acting director, as well as the procedure that preceded it, contain procedural irregularities and unfounded regulations, and for these reasons it should be annulled.

"On the other hand, part of the claim to order RTV Podgorica to re-elect the acting director has no basis in law, as the attorney-in-fact states that the position of acting director is of a technical and temporary nature, until the election of a full-term director. This, the reasoning states, would be irrelevant because a full-term director has been appointed in the meantime through a public competition," the verdict concludes.