Montenegrin Electric Enterprise (ECPG), Airports of Montenegro, Pljevlja Coal Mine, and Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management are just some of the companies that have been refusing for more than a year to make their employment data during the election campaign public. In addition to the number of new employees, state-owned companies also conceal the names of persons and the amount of wages they pay, justifying such practice by protecting privacy or declaring the information a trade secret.
Bearing in mind that the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns does not stipulate the obligation for state companies to provide the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) with data on new employees during the election process, MANS requested this data using the Law on Free Access to Information.
Thus, EPCG and Airports of Montenegro completely ignored requests for information and did not respond to a single request about the number of people they employed during this and previous year. These state-owned companies continued to ignore the legal obligation even after the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information issued decisions ordering them to respond to requests.
For more than a year, the Coal Mine has been declaring information about new employees a trade secret, and this practice has not changed even after APDPFAI annulled such decision of the Coal Mine. Instead of fully implementing the Law on Free Access to Information, this company referred to an internal document – the Rulebook on Trade Secrets.
After local elections last year, Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management stopped providing data on new employees, and until then, they had a practice of concealing the net amounts paid to the people they employed.
Data on the amount of wages are also concealed in the Montenegro Post, which continuously refuses to disclose information on the net wages of the persons it hires under the temporary employment contracts, claiming that the wages they pay are personal information.
On the other hand, the subsidiary company of EPCG, Solar gradnja, continues to refuse to submit contracts with new employees, which is also a practice of the Electric Transmission System of Montenegro (CGES), which justifies the ban on access to information from the contract on the grounds of alleged privacy protection.
This practice shows not only that state companies do not comply with the Law on Free Access to Information, but that significant efforts are being made to hide information from the public that could indicate possible misuse of state resources ahead of the elections.Full transparency of this data is required due to the fact that the so-called party-based employment is recognized as one of the key mechanisms for influencing the voters, but also due to the fact that after the change of government in 2020, the management of state-owned companies was once again taken over by staff installed in those positions thanks to the party trade and distribution of political spoils.
The latest amendments to the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns did not intruduce obligation for state-owned companies to limit employment in the election period with full transparency of information, primarily thanks to the previous government.
Today, three years after the change of that government, it is clear that the electoral reform does not suit the new political majority as well, and that the public interest is still subordinated to the party interest.
In the coming period, MANS will continue to insist that all state institutions, as well as state companies, fully meet their obligations when it comes to the transparency of their work, especially when it comes to spending of citizens’ money and using of state resources.
The address https://www.cistakampanja.me/zaposljavanje/ contains detailed information on employment in state companies.
