According to one law, professors and doctors are public officers, while they are not according to another. If we guide according to recent statements of Tome Adziev, President of the Commission for Fact Verification, professors should be subject to lustration and the consequences of it, while, according to PIOM, they won’t be in the category of citizens who are exempt from paying additional charges for social insurance.
Recently, PIOM announced the procedure for supplementary social insurance for individuals who concluded temporary services contract. According to the Rules of duty, the citizens who earn the most won’t pay additional fees. Among them are professional athletes, officials, MPs, councilors and other public officials (elected or appointed).
Until now, we didn’t get a reply from PIOM whether university professors and doctors also fall under the category of public officials (elected or appointed). If the state decides not to exempt professors from additional fees, they must be removed from the list of persons who are subject to lustration, because, according to the President of the Commission for Fact Verification, professors are public officials.
According to Professor of Administrative Law, Temelko Ristovski, professors are not public officials, therefore they won’t be exempt from the payment of insurance fees, but he said that legal decisions must be harmonizes.
– Legislation must be harmonized, which means that it is not acceptable for one law to treat them as public officials, while another doesn’t. If professors are not exempt from paying additional fees, it is evidence that professors are not holders of public office and should not be subject to lustration – says Ristovski.
He also added that in a broader sense, everybody performs some sort of a public function, but in the narrow sense, such are only the people who have an administrative function.
We have the same dilemma for the doctors, who are subject to lustration, but would be forced to pay the additional social insurance fees.
