Camović-Veličković requests that at least five members verify the mandate of the general director

AUTHOR: M.J.
The vice-president of the RTCG Public Service Council, Marijana Camović-Veličković, submitted yesterday an initiative to amend the RTCG Statute, in order to more clearly define the method of electing the general director of that company in the future.
She requested that the Statute be amended so that Article 26 is added after Article 26, which would read "For the election of the General Director, the support of the majority of the total number of Council members is required, i.e. at least five votes for a certain candidate."
The valid RTCG Statute, which governs the election of the general director, does not specify the number of votes that a candidate for the position of general director should receive.
Article 26 states only that the General Director of RTCG is appointed and dismissed by the Council and that "the appointment of the General Director of RTCG is carried out by the Council in accordance with the Law and this Statute."
- Bearing in mind that already at the beginning of the mandate of this convocation of the Council, we stated that the problem is that only three members are needed to elect the general director (which results from the interpretation of Article 26 and which we agreed on in July 2021), I believe that it's time for the Council to declare and formalize what we said we would do in 2021 - said Camović-Veličković.
She recalled that at that time it was concluded by consensus that the Statute should be changed, but not while the competition is ongoing, that is, until the election of the general director.
- As three years have passed since then, and apart from the fact that I verbally raised the issue once again, no one reacted and the problem remained unresolved. I am submitting this initiative now due to the entry into force of the Law on the National Public Broadcaster - Public Media Service of Montenegro and the provisions related to the election of the general director - said the Vice President of the Council.
She pointed out that it is necessary to react in a timely manner so that the Council is ready for the next competition to select the general director and, as she said, that competition is certainly coming up in the near future.
- There are two reasons why this is certain, the only question is which one will come true first: whether the High Court will rule on one of the two appeals against the first-instance verdicts which said that Boris Raonic was illegally appointed to the position of general director on June 1 in 2024 and confirm them or Raonic himself will resign from the position he usurped in order to apply for a competition that will prescribe criteria adapted to his modest experience. In any case, the Council must react urgently to amend the Statute - said Camović-Veličković.
The Council of the RTCG has nine members, and according to the Rules of Procedure, that body can work if the majority of the total number of members is present, and decisions are made by the majority of votes of the members present. As an exception to this paragraph, the Council adopts decisions on the adoption of the Statute, the adoption of the Rules of Procedure of the Council, the adoption of program-production plans and the adoption of the report on the implementation of those plans, as well as the adoption of the financial plan and the report on the implementation of that plan - by a majority vote of the total number of members of the Council.
Until now, the Council has been able to decide on issues if five of the nine members of the RTCG Council attend the session, which is enough for a quorum, and the decision could be made if only three members voted for it.
During the election of general director Boris Raonic, out of nine members, seven voted for him. At the Council session where his re-election was decided, he continued his mandate thanks to the votes of four members who voted in favor and one was invalid - out of a total of nine. Since the election of the general director is not specified in the exception, it could hypothetically happen that the majority of the quorum votes for the general director, that is, that three votes out of the five present give the general director a mandate.