In just one month before the parliamentary elections, the Labour Fund paid five times more money to the employees of the bankrupt companies than in the first half of the year.
Kemal Đečević
In July 2020, that Fund paid over €100 thousand for unpaid wages, taxes and contributions. On the same basis, a total of €3.6 thousand was paid in June this year, €237 in May, € 240 in April, € 4.2 thousand in March, and around €12 thousand in February, while in January there were no payments. One month before the elections, debts were paid for 94 employees, and as much as 85% of the payments refer to debts older than six years.
The largest number of payments was to former employees of SUP “Zaštita” JSC Podgorica, in which bankruptcy procedure was opened back in 2011, and JSC “Ribarstvo” Rijeka Crnojevica, which went bankrupt in 2013. It is interesting that there was a similar practice in the eve of the 2018 presidential elections, when a month before the elections, almost €60 thousand was paid on the same basis, i.e. eight times more than in the first two months of that year.
The Labour Fund was established by a special Law with the obligation to pay the outstanding debts to employees on the basis of employment with the employer due to bankruptcy. Its director is Kemal Đečević, who was questioned before the parliamentary Committee on Political System, Judiciary and Administration in connection with the “Snimak” (Tape recording) affair.
According to the recordings from the session of the DPS presidency, published by Dan within the “Snimak” affair, Branimir Gvozdenović, the then political director of the party, announced that the members of that party would receive severance pay through the Labor Fund:
“The expectations from the Labor Fund are serious,” Gvozdenović told his party comrades. “And we will organise a special meeting with the Labor Fund on how to speed up certain activities, one part from the available fund, and the other from the Fund that will be realized through the project of the European Investment Bank.”
On that occasion, the then President of the Municipality of Mojkovac said, “It is a very important thing that we direct the severance pay from the Labor Fund directly towards our membership, and I believe that this will directly help us in the field.”
MANS previously announced that just before those elections, the Labor Fund redirected as much as €620,000 for the payment of severance pay to employees of companies from Mojkovac.
MANS
