Cabinet Session: Public debt, special education, e-government, legislation, personnel issues

VIDEO RECORDING: 162nd Montenegro's Cabinet session

PHOTO GALLERY: 162nd Montenegro's Cabinet session

Podgorica, Montenegro (23 june 2016) – The Government of Montenegro at today's Cabinet session adopted the report on Montenegro's public debt as of 31 December 2015. Based on available data, the report concluded that the net public debt of Montenegro at the end of 2015 amounted to 2,361.58 million EUR, accounting for 65.69 percent of GDP. After publishing the official data of the Statistical Office on the amount of GDP, the Government will prepare a recovery plan, in order to eliminate the risk of instability in public finances. Concluding the discussion on this item of the agenda, Prime Minister Milo Đukanović assessed that the level of debt was not worrisome, especially in the context of over-indebtedness of many countries in Europe, but the real issue was whether the debt was used for current spending, which as he said, has never been dominant, or capital spending. The Prime Minister stressed that he would personally deal with the budget for 2017 and will not allow Montenegro to borrow a single cent for current spending.

In order to support students with disabilities and their better inclusion in the education process, the Government adopted the Information on teaching assistants. Following the project that has been implemented by the Employment Agency for several years by hiring assistants through a programme of public works, the Government concluded that this activity needs to be improved in terms of engagement of the necessary number of assistants during the entire school year, starting from 1 September, to improve early detection and intervention in the field of healthcare, as well as conditions in schools and to define occupational standard and provide funds for financing the project. Underscoring the sensitivity of this issue and Government’s commitment to optimally address it, the participants in the discussion agreed that further efforts should be invested in cooperation among ministries in order to complete the necessary procedures before the deadlines foreseen by electoral legislation, which prescribes restrictive measures in terms of employment.

The Government adopted the analysis on the state of e-government in Montenegro for 2015. The basic concept of e-government is to build a business model that will remove the traditional and outdated procedural and administrative barriers on the principle of a single contact point for public administration. A key priority for the development of e-government will be further improvement of electronic services, with special emphasis on raising awareness and interest of both users and providers of e-services.

The Government also adopted the report on the implementation of the Law on Enforcement of Suspended Sentence and Community Service. This Law, among other things, resolved a community sentence and conducting continuous supervision of the prisoners during the execution of the sentence. It has been estimated that this contributes to reducing the prison population, especially in the so-called "short prison sentences", and instead of prison costs, working for free prisoners pay off debt to society.

Regarding personnel issues, the Government dismissed Predrag Stamatović as Secretary-General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and appointed to this function the Prime Minister's former adviser for legal affairs Srđan Spaić. Former Finance Minister Radoje Žugic is appointed as adviser to the Prime Minister. Mirjana Bošković, former adviser in the Cabinet of the Minister of Internal Affairs, is appointed as adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister for political system, internal and foreign policy.