Proposal of the Minister of Transport and Maritime Affairs for the distribution of the net profit of the company ’’Monteput’’ is unjust and irrational, which means that the Government must take into account the opinion of Ministry of Finance, reject the proposal and transfer the overall income to the Chief Treasury Account.
The proposal foresees that 17% of the profit (€ 153,141) should be distributed in the form of bonus shares to members of governing bodies, management and employees. An additional € 50,000 was planned for housing stock, 40 000 € for support to sports, health, cultural, educational and humanitarian organizations, as well as 23 000 € for “unforeseen costs” (in an election year, without detailed criteria and rules to regulate the distribution these funds).
If the proposal was adopted, established practice wouldn’t change, because every year Monteput achieves gain, where significant share is given as bonus to governing bodies and resolving housing issues of the employees.
The fact that the Monteput made profit is not a consequence of special knowledge and skills of the enterprise’s management to reach success in the market competition. Monteput is not a player in the market, but a monopoly collector of revenue, established by the Government. According to official data, in 2015 it had a staff increase of over 20% (from 86 to 112). It is singled out every year and disproportionately rewarded, which is unfair, considering that this is the consequence of the increased frequency of traffic through the tunnel Sozina and Raš, which are being managed by Monteput.
Additionally, the sum for the support to various organizations is hardly predictable, considering that Monteput does not publish records on grants and sponsorships to companies and individuals. The fact that official website of this company has been in preparation for a long period of time does not help the lack of transparency. Even though good results in state companies should be rewarded, there is great number of cases where bad results were not punished. According to data gathered by Institute alternative, from 39 state companies on national level, 13 of them haven’t had bad results.
We do not have an information whether any state company, both on national or local level, complied with the provision of the Law on Salaries in Public Sector, which requires that losing companies must “reduce the total wage bill by 10% in the first year and an additional 5% in the next calendar year.” (Art. 10 of the Act).
Regarding Monteput, we believe that any excess of revenues must be used to enhance the professional capacity in management of the project of building the highway Bar-Boljare, which was, rightly or wrongly, added to its jurisdiction.
The state cannot reward monopolist because the relentless growth in incomes, without having sanctions for poor performance. We believe that this practice should be interrupted, and that Monteput’s entire profits must be transferred to the main account of the State Treasury. The government must adopt a special act which will regulate the fair distribution of profit in the form of awards for managers and employee, which will be stimulating and just, but not excluded from the whole context of the economic situation of the state and the state of public finances.
Stevo Muk
President of the Managing board
