PM Krivokapić - PMQs: 3,178 people employed in public administration during the caretaker government

"Thank you for your question, which pointed to the issue which, in the opinion of this Government, is one of the most important topics that will be defined through appropriate legal solutions. In order to standardize decision-making procedures and create public policies, as well as to prevent potential abuses of the Governmentʹs mandate and holders of the highest executive positions, one of the priorities of this Government is the adoption of the Law on Government. The purpose of passing this law is to create an appropriate legal system, which enables more effective institutional coordination, more efficient public spending and increased accountability of public administration," said Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, answering a question from Dragan Ivanović from MP Group of the Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro.

Prime Minister Krivokapić said that, according to the data of the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare on the number of state employees from 31 August to 30 November 2020, during the caretaker government, the number of employees increased by 3,178 at the central level[1].

"The largest increase in the number of employees was registered in educational institutions, which can be partially justified by the need for new employment at the beginning of the new school year. Thus, the number of employees in the education department increased by 2,702. Although the month of August cannot be taken as a true indicator of the real growth of the number of employees due to the summer vacation during which temporary employment is terminated and renewed from September, the increase in the number of employees in these institutions is evident if we take May 2020 as a comparative month, when the school year was still going on. In this case, the increase in the number of employees in the education department is 713. Excluding the education department, 476 new people were employed in the rest of the public administration at the central level in just three months," said the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister said that these data are a cause for concern and a great incentive to start a fundamental reform of public administration as soon as possible.

Data from the Human Resources Management Authority and the Employment Agency confirm what has already been stated. Namely, in the three-month period of the caretaker government, for the needs of state bodies[2] the Human Resources Management Authority advertised:

• 101 internal vacancy notices for 127 posts, of which 37 were selected;

• 283 public vacancy notices for 319 posts, of which 248 were selected;

• 24 public competitions for 27 posts, of which the Government appointed 5 heads of administrative bodies and appointed 22 persons as the senior management employees.

According to available data, after the termination of the mandate, the previous Government employed 312 persons in state bodies (ministries and other administrative bodies, courts, prosecutor's offices, professional services and other state bodies). Considering that a part of the employment procedures that started in the mentioned period[3] was completed after the formation of the new Government on 4 December 2020, it is unquestionable that the number of employees in these bodies is even higher than stated. During the above-mentioned period, for the needs of public institutions, agencies, majority state-owned companies and other public sector institutions at the central level that apply general labour regulations, the Employment Agency published 744 vacancy notices for 4,102 posts. The Employment Agency published the largest number of vacancy notices at the request of educational institutions – 490 for 3,172 posts. The largest number of vacancy notices was published in the period from 15 September to 15 October - 1,583 justified by the beginning of the new school year," concluded Prime Minister Krivokapić.

[1] The central level is defined by the Public Administration Optimisation Plan 2018-2020 and includes state bodies that apply the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees and public institutions and institutions that apply the Labour Law (educational institutions, public health institutions, social welfare and child protection institutions, public cultural institutions, agencies, etc.). The Public Administration Optimisation Plan 2018-2020 does not include majority state-owned public companies, the Armed Forces of Montenegro, the Central Bank of Montenegro and the National Security Agency.

[2] Ministries and other administrative bodies, services of the President of Montenegro, Parliament of Montenegro, Government of Montenegro, Constitutional Court of Montenegro, courts, state prosecutor's offices, Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of Montenegro, Health Insurance Fund of Montenegro, Employment Agency of Montenegro, Labor Fund, Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labour Disputes, and other bodies, regulatory and independent bodies, if prescribed by a special law (Investment Agency, Agency for Prevention of Corruption, Agency for Protection of Competition, Agency for Control and Quality Assurance of Higher Education).

[3] Due to the specific way of reporting on the published vacancy notices of the Employment Agency, the data cover the period from 15.08.2020 to 15.12.2020.