The management board of the Employment Agency of Montenegro (ZZZ), led by Vukica Jelic, on the eve of entering opposition controllers in this institution, introduced new programs and doubled short-term employment rate in the election year 2016, the official data analyzed by MANS Investigation Centre and Daily Vijesti show.
According to the original plan, adopted in February 2016, within the four programs to assist the unemployed, 1,350 persons registered with the Agency should be employed, and for this purpose €1.75 million was allocated. Their engagement was mainly emphasized at the beginning of the summer when parliamentary elections were expected to be called.
Before opposition controllers entered the government at the close of May this year, the management board of the Agency introduced another employment program called “Program for Training the Youth for Jobs that Prevent Gray Economy”, which envisaged hiring additional 100 persons, whereas in accordance with other programs the number of employees increased by another 347 persons, which was not envisaged in the plan for February 2016.
However, even that was not enough, so the “Amendment to 2016 Work Program” was adopted in June, which enabled additional employment of another 1,048 people. This means that in the election year 2016, ZZZ provided 2,845 jobs, instead of the initially planned 1350, on the basis of different short-term employment.
In June, the government directed another million from the budget item “benefits to the unemployed,” explaining that the money was spent at a slower pace than planned. The document “Amendments to 2016 Work Program” explain it as the need to “implement active employment policy”, whereas new short-term employment mainly involves engagement in schools and kindergartens, as well as in private companies.
ZZZ programs relating to the suppression of gray economy, cleaning roads and the coast before the tourist season, hiring assistants in schools or in services providing care for the elderly and infirm, additional training of the elderly from the register of ZZZ, and qualifying for work in private companies.
It is mainly about the contracts concluded for a period ranging from one month up to four or eight months.
Table shows doubled short-term employment provided by ZZZ in the election year 2016
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Let us recall that on June 30, a few months before the parliamentary elections 2012, at a session of DPS top officials it was agreed to provide employment through budgetary resources, primarily for the party members, with the assessment of the number of votes that would be provided through employment.
On that occasion, a former director of the Employment Agency, and until recently advisor in this institution, a DPS representative, Zoran Jelic, said that “preparing for elections, ZZZ initiated several projects.”
“The first project is internship for 500 university graduates. We have already hired 460 people and another 40 will begin by Wednesday, and then the project will be completed. This project will cost €750,000, wherefore €300,000 will be immediately returned to the budget through taxes. The project is very functional. DPS members will be primarily employed through these projects. We have daily contacts with the presidents of the DPS boards in all municipalities because we want to employ our people primarily”, said Jelic.
He also mentioned the project “Employ our Youth in Seasonal Jobs”, stating that “it is planned to have 6,000 seasonal jobs.” “This year we will employ more than 8,000 people registered with the ZZZ, especially those that support DPS”, promised Jelic.
He then offered now famous calculation that one employee produces four votes to the DPS. This year, only through five short-term employment programs, ZZZ hired 2,845 persons.
Payments from the Agency Increase
As for the ZZZ payments on the basis of employment programs, the official data indicate that they have drastically increased since March this year. Thus, for example, €8,138 was paid in January, €4,740 in February, while in March the sum reached €21,324.In April, €258,895 was paid, in May €178,230, €112,871 in June, €168,116 in July, and €165,193 in August.
Parliamentary elections were first scheduled for June, but due to the parliamentary dialogue and the entry of the opposition into the government of electoral trust, they were called on 11 July to be held on 16 October.
Emergency program created 100 jobs
The pilot project “”Program for Training the Youth for Jobs that Prevent Gray Economy” envisaged spending €200,000 for hiring 100 young people.
They signed four-month contracts and started their engagement in August and were assigned to the Administration for Inspection Affairs, Tax Administration and Police Directorate. They are supposed to “assist in the affairs concerning taxpayers, work in the call center or assist police officers in combating informal economy.”
Mila Radulovic
Natasa Vuksanovic
This text is created with the support of the European Union and the U.S. Embassy 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 European Union.
