City is dirty, director Arnautović is not retiring, KS Government under citizens' fire

(Patria) - Regarding the justified dissatisfaction of citizens with the cleanliness of the city, the Minister of Communal Economy, Infrastructure, Spatial Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection of KS, Almir Bečarević, explained the activities undertaken by the Ministry during his mandate in an effort, as he stated, to change the long-standing poor state of communal hygiene. For the poor communal hygiene, the minister directly blamed the competent services of KJKP Rad and the company's management, headed by director Vera Arnautović, whom he called upon to personally address the public and explain why the city is dirty.

Given, as he stated, that the Ministry is receiving more and more complaints from our fellow citizens about the cleanliness of the city, it is his duty to inform the public that funds exceeding 23 million KM have been secured from the Ministry's budget for the current year for public utility companies, for which contracts have been signed, and in addition to this amount, contracts for an additional 10 million KM will be signed.

He emphasized that this is a significant and sufficient amount of funds for public utility companies for the work they perform and for them to provide services to citizens properly.

"Specifically regarding the company Rad, a contract worth 7.8 million KM has been signed. In addition to these funds, there are also funds from the collection of services provided to citizens for waste disposal, which, as far as I know, they pay quite regularly, and therefore this company must answer to the citizens why this is the situation, and respond to their complaints, not the KS Government," emphasized Minister Bečarević.

In order to provide more complete information to fellow citizens regarding this company, he also stated the following:

"As is evident, the director of KJKP Rad, Vera Arnautović, is not present in the public sphere at all, nor does she make any statements regarding the cleanliness of the city. At the same time, director Arnautović has met the conditions for retirement, but despite this, she remains in this leadership position, does not perform the duties she should, and is effectively hidden behind the spokesperson. How to explain to our fellow citizens that more than half of the vehicles at KJKP Rad are out of order, as witnessed by trade union representatives who visited this Ministry? How to explain that some cars, or vehicles, are out of use due to a breakdown that is not worth more than 100-200 marks, and the drivers are sitting in the KJKP Rad premises? How to explain to our fellow citizens that this Ministry cannot issue any orders to this company, because all the competencies for the proper operation of KJKP Rad lie with the Supervisory Board of that company. That same Supervisory Board has extended, or rather renewed the mandate of the acting executive directors for the second time, although by law it could not do so. All the remarks we receive from the Trade Union regarding the management's work have been explained in detail and have shown all the negligence of everything that is happening there. And everyone suggests and everyone points to all the problems created by public procurement procedures, which, for reasons unknown to us, KJKP Rad conducts in the way it does. In these 100 days of the Government's work, this Ministry has never seen the director step forward and take any responsibility for the cleanliness of the city," said the relevant minister.

The minister also pointed out that during a recent visit to the Smiljevići landfill, neither the director nor any member of the company's management was present.

"While the spokesperson of KJKP Rad explains whether something has been allocated or not allocated to the company Rad, I emphasize again that the Ministry, in the first days of my mandate, signed all agreements with cantonal public utility companies and provided them with everything they need. This situation is repeating, it was the same last year and the year before last, and the same people are managing KJKP Rad," emphasized the minister.

He said that the fact that the director has met the conditions for retirement must be accepted, emphasizing that according to the Conclusion of the KS Government from the previous mandate, everyone who meets the conditions must retire.

"The Supervisory Board of KJKP Rad does not want to send the director to the pension fund and give an opportunity to people who might respond to the given task. Meanwhile, this Ministry can only send pictures that citizens send us about the disgrace in certain parts of the city and pay, according to the signed agreement, for everything that is foreseen by it and that we are doing. Despite all this, we continue to see images that are not appropriate for a capital city. My obligation was to inform the public in this way about easily verifiable facts, and I ask everyone else to ask questions to director Arnautović, whose total monthly income is over 4,500 KM, and she does not want to inform the public about why the city is dirty," said Bečarević.