Minister does not know how much communal services cost her

Minister does not know how much communal services cost her

Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, the Healthcare Minister made citizens angry the citizens claiming that she did not know how much communal services cost her.

The day before yesterday in a TV program called ‘The Impression of the Week’ aired by the B92 Television, she left a bad impression on the citizens claiming that ‘50,000 to 60,000 Dinars is an amount sufficient for decent life’. The Minister was obviously bewildered by the question so it is not clear if the amount she mentioned is sufficient for decent life of an individual or of a family.

While the program was still going on, mainly negative comments started piling on the social networks. While some could not believe that she did not know how much her communal service cost, others were revolted at the sum for ‘decent’ life. Some looked for her property card on the site of the Anti-Corruption Agency and found that her monthly income is minimum 170,000 Dinars (92,700 Dinars as a psychiatrist at the Clinical Center in Kragujevac and 76,326 Dinars as a Chief of the Psychiatry Department at the Faculty of Medicine in Kragujevac). She also earns about 350,000 Dinars for ‘scientific-research work’.

- The Minister has no contact with the reality. How could she have it? Her pay is unproportionally high in relation to other employees in the healthcare, the ministry that she is leading – Zivorad Mrkic, President of the Serbia Healthcare Independent Union says.

- It is clear that she does not know how people live. She was more interested in clinical testing of medical drugs financed by powerful pharmaceutical companies. Her property...