From March to date, national air carrier ToMontenegro paid nearly 50,000 euros to the experts whose names they are hiding.
These are the data obtained by the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS), which requested from the national air carrier copies of all contracts on consulting services concluded with third parties from the establishment until August 5, on the basis of the Law on Free Access to Information.
Example of a consulting contract
The NGO states that “unfortunately, the bad practice in state-owned companies continues when it comes to the transparency of their business, and everything that was a remission of DPS’ management models can now be seen as a regular business policy of the new government.”
“This is particularly problematic when it comes to new state-owned companies such as ToMontenegro, where there can be no justification that it is the staff of the previous system, or the practice inherited by the new management”, the director of the MANS Investigative Centre, Dejan Milovac, told Vijesti.
According to him, the decision of ToMontenegro’s management to treat the public’s right to know in this way is absolutely unacceptable.
“It is against the law, as well as against all the public promises of maximum transparency in spending citizens’ money”, Milovac points out.
New national air carrier was founded in February, and its first flight was on June 1.
According to documents accessed by “Vijesti”, signed by the Executive Director Predrag Todorović, the first consulting contract was concluded in March with M.V., whose task is to help negotiate with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) regarding obtaining of codes, membership in various projects available to airlines, negotiations with Passenger Service Systems, Revenue Accounting providers…
Predrag Todorović, Executive Director of ToMontenegro
According to the contract, M. V. is hired from March 1 this year to March 1, 2022, with a net salary of 2,500 euros, which means that at least 12,500 has been spent so far under this contract alone.
In three months of the contract (from March 8 to June 11), P. L., a consultant for the organization and management of the process of interviewing future employees earned 9,000 euros, i.e. 3,000 net per month. The job included, among other things, interviewing candidates and reports on candidates for jobs in the company, while the contract also provided for the possibility of extension.
Thus, the same initials also appear in the contract concluded on June 26, but this time it is for drafting of rules, regulations and organization for the needs of the company’s Human Resources Department. This time, the job is concluded for a year, from June 11, 2021 to June 10, 2022, with a net salary of 2,500 euros.
In May, E. M. S. was hired. The tasks of this expert are to provide legal advice, opinions, interpretations of international regulations, standards and contracts in the field of air transport… The contract was for three months, with a net salary of 2,200 euros. The same initials appear in the contract concluded in August, with the same job description, the same three-month deadline and net earnings.
In June, D. G was hired as a strategic consultative support, as well as to provide expert opinion in the field of public relations. From June 15 to September 15, 800 euros per month was paid to this expert.
In July, a contract was signed with D. F. N, whose task is to submit a proposal for the organization of commercial operations, destinations and frequencies 2021, commercial budget, tariff structure by destination. The contract is for one month – from July 8 to August 8, and the salary is 2,500 euros net.
In the same month, a contract was signed with K. V, hired for creating copywriting and content materials for social networks, designing campaigns for “influence” marketing, creating strategies for branding ambassadors… lasting from July 20 to September 20, with a salary of 1,200 euros net.
- T. signed a contract with ToMontenegro in August. As stated in the contract, he/she is hired for the introduction of BoB and Duty Free obligations, defining products that are included in the on-board offer on flights, appearance and uniform style, passenger satisfaction survey… The contract is for a period from 16 August to 16. November, with a net salary of 1,500 euros.
ToMontenegro also signed a contract with V.K. in August, who is supposed to define commercial strategies, additional services and their structure, three-year flight plan, analyse the market… The contract specifies that V.K. will be a consultant from August 6 to November 6 – 1,500 euros net.
“New national air carrier is nobody’s private company, it is still largely financed from the budget of Montenegro, and accordingly, citizens have a full right to know how their money is spent”, Milovac said.
Therefore, it is unacceptable that “we do not fully know with whom ToMontenegro concludes consulting contracts worth tens of thousands of euros”, he points out.
“It is even more unacceptable for such practice to become dominant in the behaviour of the management of the national air carrier. We believe that 30 years of withholding information from the citizens of Montenegro have been enough, and that after all the corruption scandals related to state companies, we had to learn the lesson that information on spending state money must be public”, he said.
According to Milovac, MANS will certainly appeal the decision of the company ToMontenegro, which will eventually have to disclose the requested information.
“I think that none of us needs the new MontenegroAirlines, which was ‘eaten’ by the decisions of the management made far from the eyes of the public”, Milovac concluded.
Predrag Todorović, Executive Director of ToMontenegro, and Nebojša Vuksanović, financial director, recently told reporters that the company would not end this year with a profit, due to infrastructure investments.
They also said that they could not say what the current losses and previous expenses are, and what minus they expect at the end of the business year. They specified that so far, ToMontenegro had 790 flights and that they transported 58,000 passengers.
They also promised to have a section on the company’s website related to free access to information, where all contracts that can be published would be available.
The government has so far allocated 26 million euros from the state budget for the company.
