The media publishes the government's asset cards when they come out, about once a year. Individual examples are selected, assets are listed, but those selected do not say much. When comparing the asset cards and the state of assets before August 2020 and now, five years after coming to power, the difference and pattern are obvious. Three times higher salaries, real estate, loans that are repaid in the blink of an eye, privileges and of course – spouses and relatives on the budget. All that remains is the memory of the promises of meritocracy and rational spending.
The Monitor analyzed over fifty asset records of officials from the current majority, as well as those who held power after August 2020. There are few who do not fit this pattern. Some are particularly illustrative.
One of these is the asset file of the Deputy Prime Minister for Education, Teaching and Relations with Religious Communities, Budimir Aleksić. In 2020, Aleksić received a parliamentary salary of 1594 euros and 300 euros in fees as a professor at the Seminary. His wife Zorica received 145 euros from the Center for Social Work. Whether as compensation or as an employee, it is not clear from the file.
Instead of the previous monthly salary of around 2000 euros, Aleksići receives up to eight thousand euros per month. In addition to the fact that the Deputy Prime Minister's salary has increased (2055 euros), numerous other government doors have also opened for him. Since June last year, he has been an associate at the Institute of History of the University of Montenegro (UCG), where he earns an additional 1437 euros, in addition to the fee from the Seminary, which has also increased and is up to 700 euros. There is also compensation based on membership in the Council for the Rights of the Child of 493 euros, but also other additional fees, mainly from the UCG.
His wife Zorica Aleksić made a special leap in family income. From the 150 euros she received from the Center for Social Work, she rose to the position of coordinator and operational support officer in the Directorate for Renewable Energy Sources at the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG), where her salary, according to the latest asset card, is up to 2304 euros per month. Before working at EPCG, she received a salary of 450 euros at the Institute for Serbian Culture, of which her husband Budimir is a 2016% founder and member of the Board. The Board also includes the winner of the Thirteenth of July Award, Bećir Vuković, and the executive director of the Institute is Archpriest Nikola Marojević, another winner of the Thirteenth of July Award. The Institute was founded in 4329. According to business registers, their accounts were closed in the early years, while now the average gross salary at the Institute, according to Company Walla data, is XNUMX euros.
Supplementing the household budget by employing spouses in state-owned companies after coming to power is not only Aleksić's recipe. Companies from the energy system are particularly popular for the wives of government officials and their closest relatives. The wives of the Minister of Interior Danilo Šaranović, Slađana Šaranović, the Chief of Staff of Prime Minister Milojko Spajić Branko Krvavac, Ana Krvavac and the Deputy Prime Minister Ervin Ibrahimović, Nisera Ibrahimović, are also employed in the energy system. Slađana Šaranović receives a basic salary of 893 euros, she is employed in the public procurement sector, but CEDIS is not stingy when it comes to employee benefits. The allowances for the 300th of March come out to 839 euros, the winter allowance is 2100 euros. With Šaranović's salary as Minister of Interior, which comes out to 390 euros, plus a supplement from the Council for Children's Rights of 2021 euros, it is a tight budget. It is certainly better than previous years, 2022 and 1400, when Šaranović only reported his entire XNUMX euros in salary, while he did not report any income for his wife.
Branko Krvavac's wife, Ana, receives 1326 euros in the Montenegrin Electric Transmission System. Officials rarely record in their asset records that their wives work in CEDIS, or in another specific state-owned company, but rather state that they are employed in a business company. Ana Krvavac, however, appears as a contact in tenders and public procurement competitions. Ervin Ibrahimović's wife, Nisera Ibrahimović, recently, as reported by the media, started working at CEDIS as an environmental specialist. Previously, during the DPS government, she was an assistant director in the Inspection Affairs Directorate. This year's asset record of the wife of Vice President Ibrahimović states that her position ended in March of this year. No new employment is listed. The Ibrahimovićs have a total loan debt of 140 thousand euros.
The wife of Nikola Rovčanin, who held numerous positions in the energy sector, Kristina Rovčanin is now a public relations associate at the EKO Fund. Her salary is 1000 euros. She started with 400 euros at Pljevaljske novine. Nikola reported a salary of around 2800 euros this year. In last year's report, as the executive director of EPCG, he reported a salary of over 5000 euros. Rovčanin has been mentioned in public several times for employing close people and family in the energy sector
Television Vijesti released the documentary Država rogajka, stating that they have more than 100 employment contracts for relatives of the highest state and local officials of all parliamentary parties, who received high-paying jobs after the change of government, and that they have been referred to the prosecutor's office. According to the television, the Democrats and the coalition For the Future of Montenegro lead in employing relatives. CEDIS, Elektroprivreda Crne Gore and Solar gradnja are just some of the companies that have recently acquired the epithet "party spoils".
That the money is in the energy sector is also evidenced by the asset declaration of NSD MP Milan Lekić. As an advisor to Nova Andrija Mandić's president in 2000, Lekić earned 500 euros per month, and 165 euros as a councilor. In this year's declaration, from March, he reported an income of 3097 euros as vice president of Rudnik Uglja, while his wife was appointed executive director of DOO Čistoća in that city, where she receives 1876 euros. In this year's asset declaration, Lekić reported that he had 76.680 euros in his current account. While he was on the opposition benches in 2020, Lekić had 17.000 euros in his current account.
Defense Minister Dragan Krapović, a Democrat, has also recently had a wife in a state-owned company. Sandra Krapović is employed by the Regional Water Supply Company in Budva. This is also stated in his asset file. According to his latest asset file, her salary is up to 1339 euros. And the minister's is 1854 euros. The Krapovićs also earn an income from rent, 2800 euros per month, and they have cash of 60 euros. Krapović had income from rent even before coming to power, and the household budget after 2020 increased due to the earnings of his wife, who, according to his asset file, was previously employed at DOO Atrium, with a salary of 330 euros.
NSD MP Jovan Jole Vučurović can also boast of a family increase in salary from the budget. His wife Biljana Vučurović, after her position as director of the Podgorica Gymnasium, from which she was dismissed after a scandal over the cover-up of a case of sexual harassment of a student, moved to an advisory position in the cabinet of the Speaker of Parliament Andrija Mandić. This cannot be seen in her latest asset file from March this year, as she moved to that position later. As director of the Gymnasium, she received a salary of around 1100 euros, and the file also reported other income earned in that position, such as compensation for the responsible person from the Adult Education Center, which reached 3825 euros in one month. Otherwise, it was around a few hundred euros. She also reported a compensation of 4475 euros in February as a product of a partnership with the NGO CAUZ. Her husband Jole Vučurović has recorded an increase in salary from 1391 to 2062 euros in the last five years. The family income was modestly supplemented by daughter Lena Vučurović, who worked at Airports of Montenegro as a clerk in the business supervision and control department. Her salary is 548 euros, with some variables.
The husband of PES MP Branka Marković, Danilo Marković, has recently been employed as a driver at the Airports of Montenegro. In her 2003 file, the MP states that her husband is a freelancer and earns 1200 euros per month. At the Airports, he earns 800 euros per month.
The Minister of Spatial Planning, Slaven Radunović, has a substantial asset record. His salary, according to this year's asset record, is 2406 euros. As compensation for being the president of the Coordination Body for the implementation of the Velje Brdo project, he received an additional 690 euros in the first three months of this year. He earned 1332 euros per month from renting out business premises. He reported a 248-square-meter business premises, in which he owns 33 percent according to his asset record, in his 2024 asset record. The basis for the acquisition is a legal regulation. In the first asset records, he stated that his wife, Tanja Radunović, was employed by a business company, and in the last ones, at the University of Montenegro.
There are also those who are reluctant to declare their assets, such as the Dragović couple, PES officials. The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption initiated proceedings against MP Darko Dragović and his wife Jovana Dragović, who was elected acting director general of the Directorate for Accession of Montenegro to the EU in March of last year, for failure to declare assets. Their files are only available on the website for this year. The Dragovićs report a debt to the company DOO MB Stars co in the amount of 70 thousand euros. According to Vijesti, the PES MP no longer has a property in the cadastre, an apartment of 57 square meters, which was once searched in the investigation against the late leader of the Škalja clan, Jovan Vukotić. That property is now registered with the company MB Stars from Danilovgrad, which, judging by what he reported, owes Dragović 70 thousand euros.
These are just some examples of changes in asset records, since it is impossible to present data on over 50 records that Monitor analyzed. It is also difficult to estimate based on asset records alone how much the assets of officials have actually increased, and from which sources. Each case would have to be thoroughly investigated and analyzed to determine this. However, the principle is clear. The records do not list the privileges that officials enjoy beyond their salaries and fees.
At the end of August, the media announced that MPs were paid over 2,8 million euros from the budget last year, which is a significant increase compared to 2023. Travel expenses alone are almost half a million euros higher. Expenses for official travel last year amounted to over 888.000, while in 2023 they were just over 391.000 euros.
The planned funds from the state budget for the national team's expenses have increased by as much as 128 percent compared to 2021, the KOD organization also announced at the end of August. Four years ago, according to the planned budget, 452 thousand euros were allocated for the national team, and this year more than a million.
"If we convert this into the number of popeks, it means that this year the budget is planned to consume a value of as much as 86.000 popeks. And a lot of them," they commented.
Some things don't change.
Milena Perovic/Predrag Nikolic
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
