The state-owned company Posta Crne Gore (Montenegro Post), in August, a month and a half before the October parliamentary elections, concluded contracts on temporary employment with as many as 74 persons by hiring an employment agency, show official documents analyzed by MANS Investigation Center and “Dan”. Thus, the mandatory procedure of public announcement of vacancies was completely avoided,
Contracts of temporary employment concluded on the short-term basis in pre-election periods are the ideal method of political influence on employees by persons in charge, as they are the ones who directly decide whether those contracts would be extended or not.
According to official data, the contracts at Posta Crne Gore have been concluded for the period of one month for otherwise regular activities in the company, such as delivery service, mail processing and sorting, operators, cleaning services…
Since those are regular activities, the state-owned company was obliged to publicly announce vacancies. Instead, Posta made contracts of temporary employment with 74 persons through the Podgorica-based Agency for temporary employment Dekra for a definite period of temporary ended employment work engaging Podgorica, thus completely avoiding the procedure of public announcement of vacancies.
According to the Labor Law, contracts regarding company’s ordinary activities are concluded for a temporary or indefinite period of time. Contracts of temporary employment include only a short-term service or work that a person should carry out in a given period of time.
Most of the contracts were concluded in Podgorica, where Posta hired 23 employees. In Bar, there were 14 contracts, ten in Budva, six in Herceg Novi, five in Tivat, four in Kotor and Niksic, three in Danilovgrad, two in Berane and one in Rozaje, Pljevlja and Pluzine.
Posta is managed by an official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Ivan Kalezic, who was previously the head of the State Electoral Commission (SEC).
Otherwise, from 12 July to 28 August Posta did not publish any of the statements of account, which would show the company’s expenditures in the election period, thus violating the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns.
Therefore, due to such legal violations, MANS filed seven complaints against Posta Crne Gore.
The “List“ affair
Posta Crne Gore has often been raised in the context of the affair “Snimak” („Tape Recording“), which revealed pre-election abuses by the Democratic Party of Socialists, as well as the famous list of opponents of the DPS and hiring interns when approved by the ruling party.
In 2013, “Dan” published a document created in May 2006 in which the then director of Posta in Niksic, Branka Bogetic, sought approval of the former head of the DPS board in Niksic, Veljko Zarubica, to hire three interns.
That document was strongly indicating that Posta Crne Gore, as a public enterprise, was one of the election “resources” of secured votes for the ruling party. The list, with its observations and opinions on each employee, was made by the manager of the office in Ulica slobode, Dragan Tomasevic, who directed it to the then executive director Milan Martinovic on 25 April 2009, as “strictly confidential”.
The list, which indicated who of the employees was a certain supporter of the DPS and who supports the opposition, included 18 employees. Eleven of the listed persons were mentioned as the DPS voters.
Authors:
Milica Krgovic
Jovana Bulatovic
This text is created with the support of the European Union and the US Embassy in Podgorica. Network for Affirmation of Non-Governmental Sector – MANS is solely responsible for the contents of this article, and the views taken herein shall not in any case be considered as those of the donors.
