Serbian PM Ana Brnabic has rejected the proposal of the Anti-Corruption Council to appoint university professors Ognjen Radonjic and Vladimir Obradovic, as well as financial expert Milovan Protic, as new members of this body.
The PM’s office openly states that the decision is based on the candidates’ habit of “criticizing the government and engaging in political activities during their public appearances”.
None of the candidates is a member of a political party, while the Council’s Presidency has no authority to accept or reject proposals for new members. It is the Serbian government that decides who can be the Council member.
On January 18, 2021, the Anti-Corruption Council sent its decision on the appointment of five new members of the Council to the PM’s cabinet. The candidate list includes university professors Ljubodrag Savic, Vuk Radovic, Ognjen Radonjic and Vladimir Obradovic and financial expert Milovan Protic.
On behalf of the Prime Minister, the head of the Cabinet, Milos Popovic, had responded to the Council’s letter almost three weeks later, on February 4, to be precise.
Popovic thus informed the Council that he accepted with “great pleasure” the proposals for the appointment of professors Ljubodrag Savic and Vuk Radovic, but rejected the candidacy of professors Ognjen Radonjic, Vladimir Obradovic and Milovan Protic, and instead, proposed his own candidates.
“…Bearing in mind that the aforementioned candidates, in addition to engaging in political activities during their public appearances, have also shown subjective and unfounded criticism of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, they cannot be objective and impartial members of such an important body as the Anti-Corruption Council,” the letter from the PM’s Cabinet reads.
The letter further states that “political affiliation cannot and will never be a limiting factor, nor even a determining factor, in the election of Council members.”
“Political zeal, which affects the possibility of objective and professional work in the Council, is an essential obstacle to appointment of these candidates,” the letter reads.
(Nova, 29.03.2021)
https://nova.rs/vesti/politika/ana-brnabic-odbila-nove-clanove-saveta-jer-kritikuju-vlast/
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