The police is collecting information, allegations of non-transparent spending at the Radio Television of Montenegro under review

 The Basic State Prosecutor’s Office is examining allegations from a criminal complaint filed by the Trade Union of the Radio Television of Montenegro against the public broadcaster’s Director General Boris Raonić, the management, and members of the Council, over what they describe as reasonable suspicion of abuse of office due to non-transparent spending of funds allocated for employees’ variable pay.

This was confirmed to Portal ETV by the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office, which stated that a case has been opened and that the prosecutor has ordered officers of the Police Directorate to collect information.

- The case is currently in the preliminary investigation phase. In order to protect the interests of the proceedings, we cannot provide further details at this time - the Prosecutor’s Office said in its response to our portal.

The Trade Union of the Radio Television of Montenegro submitted a criminal complaint to the Special State Prosecutor’s Office against Raonić, the management, and members of the Council. As confirmed to us by the special prosecutor and SSPO spokesperson Vukas Radonjić, the complaint was forwarded to the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office.

- The complaint was forwarded to the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica as the competent authority, because the reported individuals are not high-ranking public officials, and the Special State Prosecutor’s Office is competent only for the criminal prosecution of high-ranking, not all public officials, for the criminal offence of abuse of official position - Radonjić stated.

As a reminder, Snežana Radusinović, a member of the Executive Board of the Employees’ Trade Union of the Radio Television of Montenegro, said two days ago that the subject of the complaint filed in July is the non-transparent spending of funds for employees’ variable pay and for fees paid to external associates.

- As of today, we can confirm the information that 735.000 euros per year in gross amount is spent on variable pay, and more than 400.000 euros on external associates - Radusinović said.

She added that this is an enormous sum of money being spent in a non-transparent manner, which opens up significant room for abuse of budgetary funds.