In only a few state-owned companies which are managed dominantly by the staff of the new political majority, close to 900 people have been employed since the beginning of the year, mostly on a fixed-term employment contract and through temporary employment contracts, and the final figures are probably even higher because the largest state-owned companies are still withholding information about employment in the election year.
Employment in an election year has been recognized as one of the regular and efficient mechanisms for influencing citizens’ freedom of choice during elections, especially in state-owned companies that have significant capacities for the implementation of this type of electoral abuse.
The data analysed by MANS, which were obtained from the state-owned companies based on the Law on Free Access to Information, show that since the beginning of the year until the end of August, the administration of Montenegro Post employed as many as 262 people on various grounds, most often through employment mediation agencies and temporary employment contracts.
Since the beginning of the year, a significant number of people have been employed by the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System (CEDIS), 181 of them, also mainly through mediation agencies and temporary employment contracts. In the period January-September 2022, Monteput employed 144 people, mostly on a fixed-term employment contract and temporary employment contracts.
This year, the Port of Bar also concluded new employment contracts with 109 people, mostly through mediation agencies and temporary employment contracts. The state-owned enterprises Railway Infrastructure and Railway Transport together employed 135 people from January to the end of August, mostly through fixed-term employment contracts.
In the same time period, the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management of Montenegro employed 52 people, mostly through employment mediation agencies and temporary employment contracts.
In the documentation it submitted to MANS, this company deleted the amounts of net wages it had paid to employees, which is only one part of the obstructions by which the management of state-owned companies tried to hide full information about how they employ in the election year.
Thus, the state-owned company Airports of Montenegro persistently withholds information about new employees, and since the beginning of the year, they have not responded to a single request sent to them by MANS.
Information about how they employed in the election year is also hidden in the Montenegrin Electric Transmission System (CGES), which refused access to this information citing the protection of privacy and personal data.
MANS previously announced that employment data is hidden by the largest energy companies, Pljevlja Coal Mine and Montenegrin Electric Enterprise, thus, the figures on new employees in the election year are quite likely even higher.
The lack of transparency and any independent control when it comes to employment in state-owned companies are prerequisites for abuses in the pre-election period, and the continuation of the bad practices we have witnessed during all previous election processes.
Unfortunately, thus far, we have seen very little political will on the part of the ruling majority parties to end this practice, while the unreformed legal framework will continue to allow parties to abuse state resources for their own interests.
MANS
