Podgorica’s municipal companies expect the Euro model to raise wage costs from January, with Water Supply estimating it will need 4.3 million euros more for salaries. The preliminary assessments cover companies of the Capital City of Podgorica and indicate differing financial needs as they prepare for the model.
Cleanliness estimates an additional 4.2 million euros for wages, while Roads forecasts 1.5 million euros and Landfill 1.3 million euros. Markets and Marketplaces expects to need 600,000 euros more. Sports Facilities estimates wage growth of 32%, while Funeral Services puts the increase at 25%.
Deputy Mayor Nađa Ljiljanić supports rationalisation but opposes dismissals. She said companies must assess in time and responsibly whether they can sustain the Euro model so the city can determine what support to provide. According to Ljiljanić, all companies that had submitted their financial positions by then considered the model sustainable, as did the Capital City’s Secretariat for Finance.
Ljiljanić said Greenery, Cleanliness, Water Supply and Sports Facilities need funding or assistance, while Markets and Marketplaces and Parking Service had said they could manage under the model. She warned that higher wages should not make services inaccessible to residents and said the city must consider whether increases in prices, particularly food prices, would erode the benefit of higher pay.
Stefan Ćulafić, a Democratic Party of Socialists councillor in the Capital City Assembly, said lists for dismissals were already being prepared at municipal companies and forecast that service prices would rise. Ljiljanić said employees who work responsibly should remain in the companies, and stressed the city’s responsibility to provide services including clean streets, green spaces and water to every neighbourhood. She also said the financial position of companies that fund themselves differs from that of businesses receiving city funding to carry out public functions.
