Unequal treatment of Trebinje pensioners

For years, there has been a disproportionate allocation of funds from the City of Trebinje's budget to two pensioner associations. The official Association of Pensioners (UP) of the City of Trebinje will receive 12,000 KM from the city budget for this year, through three projects.

In contrast, the younger association – the City Association of Pensioners (GUP), which is not recognized by the umbrella republican organization, will receive 62,000 KM. This association is led by Risto Masleša, who is also the president of the SNSD pensioners’ active group i Trebinje.

Playing with numbers

Trebinje is the only local community in Republika Srpska that has two pensioner associations. According to official data from the Pensioners’ Association of Republika Srpska, there are currently a total of 7,818 pensioners in Trebinje.

The larger association, the Pensioners’ Association of the City of Trebinje, founded in 2003, currently has 4,482 members. It is recognized by the umbrella Pensioners’ Association of Republika Srpska, and its members pay membership fees through the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIO). However, they claim to have been discriminated against by the city for years.

The other association, with a similar name, is the City Pensioners’ Association (GUP). It was formed in 2017 by splitting from the already existing Pensioners’ Association in this city, and its establishment was surrounded by numerous controversies. Just a month after its formation, the GUP received 52,000 KM from the city's budget through a budget reallocation, while the grant for the UP was reduced from the planned 90,000 to just 12,000 KM.

The founder of the GUP was Đoko Tarana, a former councillor of the United Pensioners’ Party, who previously admitted to Direkt that the allocation of money to this association was influenced by politics.

According to the current president of the GUP, Risto Masleša, the association has about 3,700 members.

Considering that around 25 per cent of pensioners in Trebinje are not members of any pensioner association, it becomes evident that the membership number of this pensioner organization is significantly lower. However, Masleša claims otherwise but refuses to explain to Direkt how he arrived at the number of 3,700 members.

Based on this calculation, there are more pensioners in the associations than there are in the entire city of Trebinje.

When asked how he keeps track of the membership, given that they do not collect membership fees through the PIO Fund, Masleša responded that they have their own records.

“I am telling you that we have that many members. We have application forms and all records… They have signed declarations stating that they are our members. There are annual variations, we haven't done a revision of the list yet, but generally, that's the number and we are on an upward trend”, said Masleša, adding that “everything is clear to him” and that he did not want to answer any more of our questions.

Thus, we were left without many answers, including those about the political activities of this organization.

“Please, don't ask me, I know where the wind is blowing from, I know what is north, south, and west”, he said and hung up.

City Pensioners’ Association of Trebinje

Although it is not recognized by the umbrella republican association, nor do its members pay an annual membership fee, the City Pensioners’ Association receives the largest percentage of public money from the City of Trebinje intended for the pensioner population.

The table below provides an overview of the amounts of money approved by the City of Trebinje to these organizations over five years (2024, 2023, 2020, 2019, and 2018).

For the years 2022 and 2021, Direkt's journalists were unable to find official documents on the allocation of funds from the City of Trebinje to pensioner associations, so below is an overview of the income of both associations for 2022 and 2021.

It is evident that over these five years, the association currently led by Risto Masleša received at least 349,000 KM through projects from the city's budget.

During the same period, the other association, which gathers the majority of the pensioner population in Trebinje, received at least 48,800 KM.

“It is shameful how the City treats our pensioners”, Mirko Milojević, president of the Pensioners’ Association of the City of Trebinje, told Direkt.

For Some Nine, For Others Three This year, the City of Trebinje has allocated 85,000 KM from its total budget of 50 million for the pensioner population. In the latest call for projects, it distributed funds amounting to 77,000 KM.

The association led by Milojević will receive funds for only three out of the eleven projects they applied for.

The other association was approved for all nine projects they applied for, as confirmed to us.

“The commission considered only three of our projects. The maximum amount per projectcould be 8,000 KM, and they awarded us three projects at 4,000 KM each. So, a total of12,000 KM, and this has been the case for the last five years”, Milojević told Direkt.

Discriminating Against the Dead

One of the projects approved for the Pensioners’ Association (UP) concerns providing aid to the families of deceased pensioners, for which they were allocated 4,000 KM.

The other association, however, was granted 21,000 KM through three projects named “Posthumous Benefits”, “Posthumous Benefits 1”, and “Posthumous Benefits 2”, with each project receiving 7,000 KM.

“Approximately 250 of our pensioners pass away annually. When you divide these 4,000 KM by that number, it turns out that each deceased pensioner's family receives about 15 KM fewer posthumous benefits annually, received 21,000 KM from the City of Trebinje for this purpose through their projects. Their posthumous benefit was recently 150 KM, now they may have raised it to 200, meaning they receive significantly more money per deceased pensioner. The surplus funds should be returned to the City, but this never happens—they misuse it for other purposes”, claims Milojević, estimating that the other association might have only around 1,500 members.

Due to what he calls discrimination against both living and deceased pensioners, he has repeatedly addressed Mayor Mirko Ćurić in writing but has never received a response.

“I asked the mayor at a meeting, if you already discriminate against living pensioners, why do you discriminate against deceased pensioners? Verbally, the mayor agreed with what I said, but it seems someone else is directing and making these decisions”, Milojević suspects.

“Every pensioner buys food and water, pays for utilities, and pays VAT on all of this. The City of Trebinje's budget is funded by that VAT. If all pensioners equally contribute to the city's budget, they should receive approximately equal returns from the city. But no, we get crumbs compared to this other political association”, Milojević states.

He announces an appeal to the City of Trebinje and the president of the commission that scored the projects, Marina Herbez, although he does not expect much from it.

Commission President Marina Herbez refused to speak to Direkt on this topic. “I prefer not to comment”, she said briefly in a phone conversation.

Membership Fees Controversy for the Mayor

Trebinje's Mayor Mirko Ćurić does not see this situation as discrimination. He explains that the assessment of the submitted projects takes into account whether an association has additional funds from membership fees.

“According to the information I have, one association has funds from membership fees, while the other does not. This fact is considered to determine what funds they need to function. I even have data from the association without membership fees indicating that the total amount of money they receive is significantly higher than the other association, which gets funds through membership fees”, says Ćurić.

However, the criteria used for evaluating the projects, as we present below, do not mention membership fees at all. Ratko Trifunović, president of the Pensioners’ Association of RS, agrees that paying membership fees should not be a hindrance when approving projects.

“This should be proportional to the number of members, regardless of whether someonepays membership fees or not. It's their choice not to pay membership fees”, Trifunović told Direkt.

Trebinje: The “Pensioner Case City”

Trifunović emphasizes that the situation in Trebinje is unique in Republika Srpska.

He explains that their Statute allows for only one pensioner association in a local community, which in Trebinje's case, is the Pensioners’ Association of the City of Trebinje.

“This association in Trebinje is the majority, and its members pay membership fees, which fund their activities. Members of the other association practically cannot be members of our republican association because only one association, the one that pays membership fees, is recognized”, Trifunović states, adding that the establishment of this other association undermines the interests of the pensioner population. There have been attempts to unite these two pensioner organizations, but they did not gain support.

“If they want to work in the interest of pensioners, they must work together”, Trifunović asserts.

Mirko Milojević claims that the City Pensioners’ Association is purely a political organization and, according to his knowledge, has been lobbying pensioners in every possible way to vote for the SNSD in recent years.

“There's no SNSD gathering where their president (Risto Masleša) isn't the first to be photographed”, Milojević concludes sarcastically.

On the other hand, the Pensioners’ Association of the City of Trebinje does not engage in politics but cooperates with whichever government is elected.

For years, there has been a disproportionate allocation of funds to pensioner associations in Trebinje.

In 2024, one association will receive 62,000 KM, while the other will get 12,000 KM. Mirko Milojević calls the association led by Risto Masleša “political”.

Risto Masleša refuses to provide any explanations.