Announcement that those who convicted for abuse of the office power in Center in Pljevlja and for organizing illegal distribution of social help to citizens through the activist network of DPS right before the elections will remain in their jobs is scandalous and presents very clear chronic lack of political will at the all levels that even the mere executors of political corruption adequately punish.
Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Predrag Boskovic and earlier had sufficient grounds to suspend and dismiss employed in Center for Social Work in Pljevlja, Jusa Ajanovic and Ermin Nuhanovic, and by doing that not only to comply with the law that regulates employment and work of state officials, but also to send a message that such work is not something that is encouraged in the ministry.
The Law of the State Officials and Employees gave to Minister Boskovic enough space to sanction their his employees beside the investigation and judicial process which is discussed in Article 81. of the Law on Civil Servants that defines that “the responsibility of a crime and violation does not exclude disciplinary responsibility”. This means that Boskovic had to raise the issue of disciplinary responsibility of employees in Center in Pljevlja, even not waiting for the results of the trial.
According to the Law on Civil Servants and Employees “abuse of the office power and exceed of the authority in service” and “improper use and handling entrusted funds” represent a serious violations of official duty, while as one of the measures for serious violations provided is termination of employment.
As the public knows so far, in the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare any kind of disciplinary action against Ajanovic and Nuhanovic was not taken after evidence emerged that they used money of the Center for Social Work to buy votes for the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists.
The Law of the State Officials defines and that the disciplinary proceeding is initiated by the head of the state institution, in this case the Minister Predrag Boskovic. When is taken into account that Juso Ajanovic is the member of the municipal DPS in Pljevlja, and that the Minister Boskovic is the member of the Committee of that party, it is not an easy to conclude why the Minter decided to protect interest of the party, and not the full application of the Law of the State Officials.
In the legally regulated countries even suspicion in, not only legality, but also morality of behavior would be enough that the state officials are at least suspended, while in Montenegro not even judgment is not a guarantee that someone will be removed from the position that he abused.
We believe that the return or maintaining of Ajanovic and Nuhanovic on those positions, for which is already proven that they have been abused by them, is absolutely unacceptable and that sends a very dangerous message that the political corruption is with no punishment. The fact that Ajanovic and Nuhanovic still work at the Center for Social Work shows that the DPS and the Minister Boskovic do not give up the service of trusted personnel, and that the abuse of the office power and public money for party purposes is absolutely acceptable behavior in the public institutions which is in encouraged in the absence of any kind of punishment.
MANS therefore invites the Minister Predrag Boskovic to initiate disciplinary action against both officers from the Center of Social Work in Pljevlja because he is obligated by the Law to do that, and he is warned by it that any further delay seriously crumble public confidence in his institution, as well the legal system as a whole within which is not possible to ensure the implementation of appropriate penalties as demotivated factor for criminals.
