The intention of the Government of Montenegro to spend more than half a million euros from the state budget on social welfare in the election year is a continuation of the worst practice of all previous DPS governments when this money was distributed behind closed doors and without clear criteria.
At yesterday’s session, the government considered the proposal of the Secretariat-General to increase the current decision on payments of social welfare from the state budget for 2022 by an additional 250 thousand euros, by which a total of 550 thousand euros would be allocated for the election year.
Of that amount, 400 thousand euros would be allocated by the Commission for allocation of the state budget funds, 100 thousand would be allocated by the Commission for the assessment of damage from natural disasters, while the remaining 50 thousand would be allocated by the Inner Cabinet of the Government of Montenegro.
MANS has previously warned the Government of Montenegro and the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare that it is necessary to define precise and transparent criteria for the allocation of this welfare, which did not happen even after a year of this government’s mandate. In this way, these half a million euros will be allocated in the same manner that previous governments did.
The Government made a similar decision in the eve of last year’s local elections in Nikšić, when 200,000 euros was allocated from the state budget for these purposes. MANS then pointed out that the money for social welfare was allocated according to the Rulebook from 2009, which did not contain any more detailed criteria for allocation and enabled numerous abuses.
The danger of abuse of this aid was also recognized by the National Council for the Fight against High-Level Corruption, which sent a recommendation to the Government of Montenegro last year to adopt appropriate criteria for allocation, which the government ignored.
This is a special problem when bearing in mind that 2022 is the election year, while all previous elections have shown that the payment of social welfare was used as a means of illegal influence on the most vulnerable categories of the population and their freedom of choice when voting.
As there are currently no minimum conditions for ensuring basic transparency in the spending of these funds, any further insisting on such allocation of the social welfare would be a clear intention to continue with outrageous electoral manipulation in order to gain political advantage on the ground and direct abuse of state funds for political purposes.
Therefore, it is necessary to adopt clear and transparent criteria for the allocation of funds from the budget reserve, which will depend on the real needs of citizens, and not serve for the most audacious manipulation of those really in need of social welfare.
MANS
