(Podgorica, 1 October 2012) – The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, along with the Human Resources Directorate, has violated the Law on the Financing of Political Parties, since it has advertised a number of jobs in the lead up to the elections. The jobs were announced one day after the announcement to the elections on 1 August 2012.
Article 21 of the Law on the Financing of Political Parties specifies that public advertising of new jobs is banned and the employment of persons in state organizations, public institutions, municipal bodies, public enterprises, state funds, etc. The ban goes into effect from the day of announcing the elections to the day of the elections (i.e. in this case from 31 July 2012 to 14 October 2012). Along these lines, the same law foresees that those responsible for such acts should be held accountable with fines ranging from €200 to €2000.
For these reasons, attempts by the Ministry of Justice to divert attention from their misdeeds – by calling on the regulations concerning employment of state functionaries and trying to show how their actions are indeed legal – are meaningless. The Law on Financing clearly stipulates that employment during the campaign is illegal, unless it is for a permanent position, which means that it is the responsibility of every institution to stop all hiring procedures initiated while the elections and electoral campaign are continuing.
If the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights truly wanted to respect the Law on the Financing of Political Parties, it could have withdrawn the controversial advertisement until after the elections. In the meantime, it could have filled the empty position through an internal hiring process or by taking on an employee from another state institution. Following the end of the elections, the Ministry could have begun another procedure for employment and in that case all would be in accordance with the law.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights doesn’t want to acknowledge that it has violated the law. Instead, it continues to insist on a baseless and non-legal justification of its actions in order to confuse the public. This fact on its own is sufficient evidence that the MInistry of Justice is aware that it has violated the law.
For this reason, we are once again calling on the State Electoral Commission (DIK) to immediately consider the complaints we’ve filed in this and similar cases. We call on the DIK to immediately begin a disciplinary procedure against those officials in the Ministry of Justice who are responsible of this breach. By acting on these violations, the DIK will ensure that state institutions begin to respect the existing law (that bars them from abusing state property for the purposes of pre-electoral campaigning).
