In the first two months of the election campaign for the upcoming parliamentary elections, payments from the state budget based on temporary employment contracts increased by over 60% compared to the same period last year, according to the analysis of state budget spending conducted by MANS. Thus, for the period March/April this year, on the basis of temporary employment contracts, around 3.2 million Euros was paid from the treasury, while that amount for the same period last year was around 2.1 million Euros.
When it comes to comparison with March last year, the largest increase had the Cadastre and State Property Administration, which paid out as much as 405,000 Euros based on temporary employment contracts this March, which is more than double compared to last year. It is followed by the Ministry of Culture and Media, which last March had no expenses for temporary employment contracts, while this year, it paid out as much as 120 thousand Euros. The Ministry of the Interior (MoI) has also doubled the payment of benefits under the temporary employment contracts compared to last year, thus, 115,000 Euros was paid out in March this year alone. Payments on this basis compared to last year were also doubled by the Revenue and Customs Administration, which paid out 103 thousand Euros in March.
While there were no payments in March last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management paid out close to 60,000 Euros in the same period this year based on temporary employment contracts.
The largest increase compared to April last year had the Institute for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions, which had no payments in April 2022, while this year, it paid out close to 120 thousand Euros. The MoI also had an increase in April, which paid out 190,000 Euros this year, almost twice as much compared to April last year. As in March last year, the Ministry of Culture and Media had no payments in April either, however, 73 thousand Euros was paid in April this year based on temporary employment contracts.
Nearly three times higher payments compared to April last year were made by the Directorate for Inspection Affairs, which paid around 96 thousand Euros for temporary employment contracts in April this year. In April 2022, the Health Insurance Fund paid out only 1,700 Euros based on temporary employment contracts, while that amount in April this year was close to 50,000 Euros.
The situation is similar with the majority of other budget users who increased their payments from the budget on this basis during March and April this year. Institutions that paid less on the basis of temporary employment contracts during March and April this year compared to last year include the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism.
The so-called short-term employment has been recognized in the previous period as one of the mechanisms for illegal influence on the free electoral will of citizens, and one of the key levers for influencing the election result used by the authorities before 2020.
However, the data on increased payments based on temporary employment contracts in the eve of the extraordinary parliamentary elections show that the old practice has not been completely abandoned, and that the mechanisms that were once criticized by the opposition are now being used unrestrainedly from the position of the government.
In the eve of the parliamentary elections, MANS will continue to monitor the spending of the state budget, the abuse of which has clearly not stopped with the change of government.
You can find detailed data on expenses for temporary employment contracts on the interactive graph at the following link https: //www.cistakampanja.me/potrosnja-za-ugovore-o-djelu-u-2023-i-2022-godini/.
MANS
