According to data from the Ministry of Finance, in June this year, there were a total of 54 employees in the public sector, of which 728 were at the central level, and over 47 in municipalities. However, that is not all, because if we add about 7 employees in state and municipal public enterprises, according to data from the Moj novac website of the Alternative Institute, we arrive at the figure that 200 people worked in the entire public sector in the middle of the year.
According to Monstat data, the average number of employees in Montenegro in the first 7 months of this year was slightly over 268 thousand, so it turns out that close to 30 percent of people work in the public sector, or soon, almost every third employee. However, for the current government, this is not too big a problem, because as some repeat, it is correcting the injustice towards their people, whom the DPS did not want to employ. And, they say, they did not retaliate with layoffs.
"Who lost their jobs from the DPS? Specifically, from the ministry I head, no one was left. We did not persecute anyone. Are some people getting jobs? And they should be getting jobs, it is quite natural. And now, are there any small oscillations there, I cannot deny them, but I can say that it is correcting a decade-long injustice," says Vladimir Joković, Minister of Agriculture and leader of the SNP.
The public sector has been growing rapidly in the last 4 years, so compared to November 2021, the number of employees, excluding public enterprises, which are a "mecca" for party recruitment, has increased by over 3 thousand. Of that, at the central level by more than two and a half thousand and in municipalities by over 500.
Where did the famous optimization go and what next? Joković has a proposal. The purge is possible, but it should apply equally to employees before and after August 30, 2020.
"Then let's also bring back all those who are employed illegally without any competitions, competitions that last a day, with incredible criteria, so that all those who are employed, we can announce job competitions and then those who worked and those who didn't work, whoever is the best, and that would be fair," says the Minister of Agriculture.
Meanwhile, unfairness towards ordinary citizens is okay, while all party appetites are satisfied. This year alone, more than 700 million euros from the state budget will be spent on public sector salaries, not counting municipal and public company salaries.
The largest number goes to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where there are 4385 employees, the Clinical Center of Montenegro has over 3, and the Army has 1900. While this country probably needs so many people in these parts of the apparatus, the real question is whether the Parliament of Montenegro needs to have almost 300 people working, the General Secretariat of the Government almost 200, and the Office of the President 36.
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