Welfare payments from the budget reserve continue ahead of local elections
An additional 70,000 euros was paid from the budget reserve for various welfare to natural persons, so in just two weeks of September, around 130,000 euros was spent from the budget on this basis. Of this, at least 90,000 euros was allocated during the election campaign to the citizens of municipalities where local elections will be held.
Latest available data show that in the period September 19-25, 2022, welfare was paid from the budget reserve to 159 natural persons in the total amount of over 70 thousand euros. The welfare was paid based on the Decisions of the Government Commission for the allocation of part of the funds of the budget reserve signed by Aleksandar Damjanović, the Minister of Finance.
MANS previously announced that in the period September 12-18, 2022, 59 thousand euros was paid from the budget reserve to 118 persons.
Data show that in two weeks of September, most of the money was allocated to citizens of municipalities where elections will be held. In Podgorica, around 47,000 euros was allocated to 100 people, in Rožaje, 23,000 euros to 45 people, and in Bar, 6,000 to 13 people. In other municipalities where elections will be held (Bijelo Polje, Budva, Pljevlja, Kolašin, Plav, Tivat, Danilovgrad), 16 thousand euros was allocated to 34 persons.
However, nearly 23 thousand euros was paid to 53 persons for whom it was not specified which municipalities they came from, thus, it is likely that the total amount of funds allocated in the municipalities where the elections will be held is even higher.
Decisions on the allocation of these funds are made without any criteria, based on the Rulebook that was adopted more than ten years ago. The mass allocation of welfare from the budget reserve in the pre-election period was a feature of the previous government, but it is obvious that the new one has adopted the very same practice, even though they themselves criticized it before.
That is why we welcome the decision of the Parliament to ban the use of the budget reserve for the payment of welfare to natural persons until the end of the year.
