MIT confirmed to UNS: The possibility of electing Slavoljub Ristić and Biljana Ratković Njegovan as members of the committees has been blocked in JIS.

“As soon as we received the notification that they were public officials, the MIT confirmed this information by reviewing the Register of Public Officials of the Anti-Corruption Agency and immediately blocked the possibility for them to be elected as members of the commissions in the Unified Information System (JIS),” it was stated to UNS.

As emphasized by the MIT, notifications were sent to those local self-governments that had already elected Ristić and Ratković Njegovan as members of the commissions, instructing them to exclude them from the commissions and amend their decisions.

As can be seen in the JIS, Slavoljub Ristić has been excluded from the commissions in Dimitrovgrad, Svrljig, and Čajetina, while Biljana Ratković Njegovan has been excluded in Rekovac, Gornji Milanovac, and Doljevac.

“At the time when the MIT established that Ristić and Ratković Njegovan were public officials, they were candidates for several other commissions, but by technically blocking the possibility of their election, local self-governments were prevented from electing them any further,” it was stated to UNS by the MIT.

Slavoljub Ristić is listed in the Register of Candidates eligible to participate in the work of the commissions as a representative of the Professional Association of Journalists of Serbia (PROUNS), while Biljana Ratković Njegovan is listed as a representative of the Journalists’ Society of Vojvodina (DNV).

As noted by the Ministry, following this case, the MIT communicated with the Anti-Corruption Agency to verify all other candidates for commission members and determined that, apart from Ristić and Ratković Njegovan, the remaining candidates from the MIT Register are not public officials.

To recall, UNS reported in early April that the Government of the Republic of Serbia appointed Slavoljub Ristić as the President of the Board of the Republic Institution of Film News on March 12, thus granting him the status of a public official, which means that, according to the Law on Public Information and Media, he cannot participate in the work of commissions for evaluating media projects.

Professor Biljana Ratković Njegovan was registered in the Register of Public Officials of the Anti-Corruption Agency on February 19.

As reported by UNS, Njegovan was appointed on February 19 of this year as a member of the Temporary Council of the Academy of Vocational Studies in Novi Sad and was accordingly registered in the Register of Public Officials of the Anti-Corruption Agency.

Source: UNS