ASK gave a deadline of 30 days for directors and editors to submit data

The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) has warned the Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG) that the secretary of that media company, members of the audit committee, directors of Radio and Television, program editors, the ombudsman, as well as members of the Commission for Program Content in the Albanian language are public officials and that they must submit a report on income and assets within 30 days.
According to information from Pobjeda, at least 50 employees in those positions are expected to submit data.
On the ASK website, you can currently find the property records of RTCG General Director Boris Raonić, RTCG Council President Veselin Drljević and Council members Marijana Camović-Veličković, Naod Zorić, Milica Špajak, Predrag Marsenić, Predrag Miranović, Filip Lazović, Amina Murić.
General director Boris Raonic submitted a report in February of this year, according to which his salary was 3,482.25, and as other income, income of 30 euros per month, as well as a one-time payment of 114 euros, were indicated.
According to the report Drljević submitted to KAS in March of this year, during 2022 he received 1,335.53 euros per month as the president of the RTCG Council. It was stated that he received 692.85 euros per month in the Budva Riviera, but it was not indicated what function he performed in that company. As a project coordinator in the NGO Association of Sports Journalists of Montenegro, he received 373.02 euros per month, and in the NGO Identitet he was a project assistant for which he received 316.87 euros in compensation. As an associate in the NGO Građanska aljansa, which was led by Boris Raonić until he was appointed general director of RTCG, he once received 61.67 euros.
According to ASK reports, President Drljević has twice as much compensation as other members of the Council.
Marijana Camović-Veličković submitted the data to ASK in March. As vice-president of the Council, she received around 670 euros per month, and for research work in the Media Union, of which she was the president, she received three times 895 euros, once 3,600, twice 1,020 and once 2,040 euros. From the Union of Trade Unions of Montenegro, as a member of the Executive Board, she received a monthly fee of 60 euros.
Milica Špajak submitted the report in March, and also as a member of the RTCG Council, she had about 670 euros per month. In her file, it is stated that she received 450 euros and 107 euros per month from the organization where she works during 2022, and for five months she had 237 and 264 euros, respectively. Špajak is the program director at the LGBT forum "Progres".
Predrag Marsenić, who was proposed in the Council as the head of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, receives 1,660 per month from them, and 670 as a member of the Council.
Predrag Miranović, dean of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, receives the same remuneration as the other members - 670 euros. As a dean, he had a salary of around 2,500 euros. From CANU, he received a monthly fee of 1,700, and once 2,700 for scientific activity. Miranović also had other income as an expert associate at UCG, in the Department of Textbooks, the Examination Center... and he once received 722 euros from copyrights.
Naod Zorić did not report any income other than that from membership in the Council, which also amounts to around 670 euros per month.
Amina Murić, an employee of the Civic Alliance, has the same compensation as the others. It says that she received about 980 per month from the organization (630 and 352 euros), and several payments of 200, 176, 881, 50, 132 and 150 euros were recorded.
Filip Lazović, employed in the Union of Employers of Montenegro, has a salary of 640 euros in addition to the fee for membership in the RTCG Council. As a member of the Sectoral Commission for Economy and Law of the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation for the period from October 2021 to December 2022, he received a total of 1,450 euros.
DRI reacted
In July, the State Audit Institution (DRI) published a report in which it gave a conditional opinion on the finances and regularity of RTCG operations during 2021.
Among the recommendations that, according to the SAI, have not been fully implemented is the one that the RTCG should issue a special act that would regulate the conditions and the way of exercising the right to the variable part of the employees' earnings.
The SAI, among other things, pointed out that the RTCG adopted a rulebook on the part of the salary based on the achieved work results, but that it did not specify who evaluates, proposes and approves the salary increase based on the achieved results in the work of the general director, the director of Radio Montenegro and the director Television of Montenegro.
Article 7 of the Rulebook stipulates that the General Director of RTCG can also receive an increase in salary based on the achieved work results, up to the amount of three average net earnings in RTCG, Article 8 that in addition to the basic salary, the director of RCG and the Director of TVCG can also receive an increase in salary based on the achieved work results, up to the amount of two average net earnings in the previous month, realized in RTCG.
SAI emphasized that this allowance is paid every month in the maximum amount, without evaluation of performance, i.e. achieved work results.
Marijana Camović-Veličković, deputy president of the RTCG Council, told Pobjeda that the SAI still failed to determine how wages are calculated in RTCG, who proposes and determines, and on the basis of which contribution to work, the variable part of the earnings, and it is the part that is obviously deliberately kept in the dark.
What they clearly pointed out and thus confirmed what was known until now, but unofficially, is that the general director, directors of TVCG and RCG receive the maximum variable part that they set for themselves every month, regardless of work performance - she said. Camović-Veličković.
CGO: RTCG covers management salaries and official travel expenses
Despite the fact that the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data (AZLP) ordered RTCG to submit information on the amounts of salaries and benefits of its management through four decisions, and following complaints from the Center for Civic Education (CGO), the Public Service has not acted on this until today, which violated the legal deadlines from these decisions in the range of 16 to 35 days, the organization said yesterday.
According to the CGO, RTCG hides from the public the financial income of the director of TVCG - Marija Tomašević, the director of Radio Montenegro - Milan Knežević, the assistant general director for financial and legal affairs - Tijana Vujošević, the assistant general director for programming - Mitra Rakčević, the assistant general director for technique
Dejan Vujović, editor-in-chief of the First Program of TVCG - Damir Ramović, head of the RTCG portal - Marko Vešović, as well as the expenses of the management's official trips.
Thus, RTCG occupies one of the leading positions on the black list of non-transparent entities financed by all citizens of Montenegro, the CGO states, stressing that it is not an incident of behavior.
They remind us that together with other NGOs, they previously pointed out the violation of the final court verdict in connection with the illegal election of the general director of RTCG, Boris Raonic.
This year's Report of the European Commission and the resolution of the European Parliament also note the ignoring of a legally binding court ruling when it comes to the election of RTCG General Director Boris Raonic, and the fact that RTCG viewers could not find out how Brussels sees the case speaks volumes for RTCG's editorial policy. Because of this violation of professional standards and the concealment of important information from the public by the RTCG editors, the CGO submitted three complaints to RTCG ombudsmen - according to the organization.
The Media Center also requested information from the RTCG on several occasions, but it was not provided to them, despite addressing the AZLP, which also did not advertise.
Media Center Director Goran Đurović pointed out that AZLP can initiate misdemeanor proceedings against responsible persons in RTCG for violating the law, but nothing happened.
As a reminder, the president of the AZLP Council is Željko Rutović, a long-time assistant minister and director of the Media Directorate in the Ministry of Culture and Media, as well as a long-time member of the DPS Main Board. The members of the AZLP Council are Muhamed Đokaj and Zoran Vujičić, longtime employees of the Civil Alliance, in which RTCG General Director Boris Raonić was a director for many years - Đurović concluded.
POBJEDA