The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection finds the behaviour of Speaker of the National Assembly Maja Gojković during yesterday’s debate of amendments to the Law on the Budget unworthy of the office she holds and damaging to the very institution of the National Assembly.

In this context, Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić said:

“Even the fact that she wasted the time reserved for parliamentary debate and paid for by taxpayers’ money on a pointless discussion of a sloppily formulated amendment was bad enough in itself, because it must have been clear to anyone with a basic knowledge of law that it was not possible to cut anyone’s salary, including the Commissioner’s, in the tragicomic way that was attempted here.

However, during yesterday’s debate, the Speaker of the National Assembly demonstrated something far worse than just incompetence. Driven by an impassioned desire to give credence to the “arguments” put forth by the proponents of this amendment, she presented utter falsehoods about the Commissioner’s salary on air of the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation, in front of thousands of citizens. Thus, she first said the Commissioner’s salary was RSD 400,000.00 and then, with a cynical “sincerest apology to the Commissioner”, she corrected herself by saying the actual amount was RSD 376,000.00. She later repeated this figure several times during the debate.

According to the Law, the salary of the Commissioner for Information is “equal to the salary of a Supreme Court Judge.” This means that, just as the salary of every one of the several dozens of Supreme Court judges or the salaries of other officials that are determined in a similar way, for example the Equality Commissioner, the Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency etc., the Commissioner’s salary is RSD 194,000.00, which amount may be adjusted upward by several percentages depending on the years of service. Thus, the actual amount is half the figure which Maja Gojković so persistently repeated.

However, the problem is not just the fact that the Speaker of the National Assembly stated falsehoods: the main issue here is that she did so deliberately, it was an intentional lie. Of course, Maja Gojković must have known the real amount of the Commissioner’s salary, because it is not only posted and available on the Commissioner’s website and in the registry of public officials, but is also determined exactly by the Administrative Board of the National Assembly, which she chairs.

In view of the foregoing, I find it opportune to remind Maja Gojković it is degrading for the people who want to live in something that bears at least the minimum of semblance to a decent country to have that country’s parliament chaired by a person who does not hesitate to mislead them and lie to them.”