{"id":32645,"date":"2022-01-27T12:07:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T10:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=32645"},"modified":"2022-01-28T21:42:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T19:42:18","slug":"mailman-working-as-a-gallery-guide-progressive-party-councilors-in-kucevo-received-funds-from-cultural-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/mailman-working-as-a-gallery-guide-progressive-party-councilors-in-kucevo-received-funds-from-cultural-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Mailman Working as a Gallery Guide: Progressive Party Councilors in Ku\u010devo Received Funds from Cultural Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

In September 2020, school teacher Ne\u0161ica Paunovi\u0107<\/strong> was hired by the Dragan Kecman<\/em> (then Veljko Dugo\u0161evi\u0107<\/em>) Cultural Center<\/em> in Ku\u010devo. Her tasks included, among other things, coordinating the performances and rehearsals of folk dance groups, attending all rehearsals and making sure they are held. This is outlined by the work reports and contracts she concluded with the Director of the Cultural Center<\/em> Zlatan Zabukovec<\/strong>. These include at least four temporary service contracts, which show that her monthly fee for this work amounted to 10,000 RSD.<\/p>

However, Paunovi\u0107 has told CINS that she does not work there.<\/p>

“I don\u2019t do anything there,” Paunovi\u0107 said when asked what specific jobs she did there.<\/p>

She claimed this even after we explained to her that we have copies of the contracts she signed, as well as vague reports about her work, on the basis of which payments to her were approved:<\/p>

“I\u2019m not being paid, where did you get that information?” Paunovi\u0107 said.<\/p>

Two weeks before being hired by the Cultural Center<\/em>, Paunovi\u0107 became a councilor in the Municipal Assembly of Ku\u010devo, representing the list Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 – For our children<\/em> (Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> – SNS).<\/p>

Her colleague, Sla\u0111an Miljkovi\u0107<\/strong>, a farmer by profession, was also employed at the Cultural Center<\/em>, where he was tasked with working on “the affirmation of members of the folk dance ensemble” in the nearby village of Zelenik, as well as maintenance work at the local cultural center there. However, he also claims otherwise:<\/p>

“I don’t work there, where did you get that information?”<\/p>

Based on documents that CINS had access to, Ne\u0161ica Paunovi\u0107 and Sla\u0111an Miljkovi\u0107 are just two of 11 councilors in Ku\u010devo who were hired by the cultural center in various periods over the last two years. According to the contracts, the councilors were paid at least around 3 million RSD for those jobs, although the answers provided by Miljkovi\u0107 and Paunovi\u0107 cast doubt on whether they actually did those jobs. In addition, due to a possible conflict of interest, the councilors had an obligation to abstain from voting at Assembly sessions in which decisions regarding the work of this institution were being made, which some of them failed to do, according to their own admissions.<\/p>

Director of the Cultural Center<\/em> Zlatan Zabukovec says that these contracts “were signed ages ago”. When asked if 11 councilors were employed at the institution, Zabukovec told our journalist:<\/p>

“Even if there were fifty of them, what is it to you?”<\/p>

\"zlatan
PRESIDENT OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF KU\u010cEVO (LEFT) HANDS A PLAQUE TO ZLATAN ZABUKOVEC (RIGHT) FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION TO CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT; PHOTO: DRAGAN KECMAN CULTURAL CENTER<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Mailman working as a gallery guide, veterinarian as a handyman<\/h2>

The Cultural Center<\/em> in Ku\u010devo has hired many councilors for jobs that differ from the occupations listed in their biographies.<\/p>

Thus, one of the councilors, a mailman by profession, was since September 2020 tasked with welcoming visitors to the gallery and acquainting them with the authors and works that make up the permanent exhibition at the Cultural Center<\/em>, as well as looking after the art in the gallery.<\/p>

His colleague from the local assembly, a veterinarian, was hired as a handyman. He was in charge of repairs, handling the on-stage equipment and arranging the stage scenography. When necessary, he also performed the duties of ticket agent, janitor, security guard and courier.<\/p>

Most of the councilors, six of them, were engaged in jobs involving folk dance. Although the news that folk dance rehearsals would be starting soon appeared on the website of the Cultural Center<\/em> at the end of September 2021, they were engaged a year before that, some even during the state of emergency.<\/p>

One of them is Ljubi\u0161a Ljubomirovi\u0107<\/strong>, who told CINS that there were gatherings of the folk dance group even during the pandemic:<\/p>

“It wasn\u2019t very regular. We had [rehearsals] two or three times a week, then we reduced that a bit because of Covid.”<\/p>

Apart from him, two other councilors claim that they actually worked at the Cultural Center<\/em>. Others that we reached out to have refused or avoided to speak to CINS.<\/p>

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