In the election year of 2016, the Government of Montenegro adopted amendments to a series of laws by which it increased wages of public officials, public administration employees and health workers, as well as severance payments to the public sector employees who are retiring or redundant. The government increased the pensions, as well.
The increase occurred despite the fact that at the close of 2015 the country had a public debt of 63.3 percent of the estimated gross domestic product (GDP), i.e. €2.29 billion, and despite the estimates that the public debt by the end of 2016 will reach 80 percent of GDP.
The government of Montenegro submitted the Budget Bill 2016 to the Parliament on 14 November 2015. It projected increased budget allocations of €13 million for wages of public officials and public administration employees. The government used the Proposal for the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector, which was submitted to the Parliament as late as 30 December 2015 and was adopted only in 2016, as a legal basis for the increase of wages. Therefore, the government’s budget provided higher salaries based on the law that was subsequently submitted to Members of Parliament to decide upon, which was illegal.
At the end of December 2015, the Parliament of Montenegro adopted the Law on Budget of Montenegro for 2016, providing increased expenditures for salaries of public officials and public administration employees. The law was published in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2015. On the other hand, the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector was adopted by the Parliament in late February 2016 and published in the Official Gazette only on March 8 of the same year.
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