Entrance to the Agency for Prevention of Corruption
The Law on Prevention of Corruption in Montenegro is made in such a manner to enable statesmen and public officials to hide assets worth millions from the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) without legal consequences. This was concluded in the research conducted by the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network – LUPA (LOUPE). Pursuant to the Law on Prevention of Corruption, public officials are obliged to submit a report on their income and assets, as well as on assets and income of married and common-law spouses and children, if they live in the same household.
– Income and assets also include shares in companies whose owner i.e. founder is a married and common-law spouse and children if they live in the same household. Pursuant to the legal provision, it is not necessary to report the property of a company, but the Agency for Prevention of Corruption has the possibility to check that property by accessing databases of other state bodies – the Agency for Prevention of Corruption announced.
Until November 23, an item in the asset declaration form of public officials published on the APC website clearly stated that “IV.12 Movable property for which registration is mandatory for a legal entity of which the official/household member is the owner or founder “.
Property card before November 23 this year
That changed after November 23, after a LUPA journalist sent questions. In the asset declaration form of officials, item IV.12 has been amended and now reads: “Movable property for which registration is mandatory for a legal entity of which the official is the owner or founder”. Therefore, the word “household member” has been deleted from the item.
Property card after November 23 this year
When subsequently asked by journalists to explain why they changed the items from the asset declaration form of public officials after November 23, APC replied: “After receiving earlier questions, the Agency changed the form of the Report on Income and Assets published on the website and available to the public, in order to be identical with the form that public officials fill in”.
“This difference in the forms in items 4.11 and 4.12 was due to a technical error, which we eliminated after you had raised issues. Therefore, due to this technical change, the scope of data entered in the Report on Income and Assets does not change”, stated in the response of APC. The said “technical error”, as the Agency declared, had caused some officials to report movable and immovable property being owned by the company of a family member of a public official and others not.
For example, the former Minister of Health Kenan Hrapovic, among other things, reported to APC that the private health institutions of his wife “Dent Es” and “Zub”, which are registered in the Central Register of Business Entities (CRPS), have two business premises of a total of 57 square meters.
Property card of Kenan Hrapovic
On the other hand, the former vice president of the Parliament of Montenegro and an official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Branimir Gvozdenovic, did not report the movable property owned by the company “Menta Montenegro” owned by his wife Marijana Gvozdenovic. It is a luxury car, which was bought on lease in 2010 when its value was estimated at 42,786 euros. No 2010 asset declaration form of Gvozdenovic contains information about that car, because “it needed not to” report it i.e. the law does not explicitly state the obligation for the movable property of the company of the public official’s wife to be reported. Gvozdenovic confirmed for the purposes of this research that the company “Menta Montenegro” owned the “Audi Q5” until the end of last year.
Report of the Register of Pledges of Montenegro
– The company owned the car, not me, nor a member of my household so that I would be obliged to report it in the report on income and assets, as required by the Law on Prevention of Corruption (Article 24). I reported my wife’s share in the ownership of the company, which is mandatory (and sufficient) information for this form of a report, which I am obliged to fill out and submit to APC as a public official. Based on this data, as well as the reports that companies submit to other bodies, it is possible to gain insight into the (value) of movable and immovable property of companies. The car was sold at the end of last year – Gvozdenović answered.
However, he did not want to say how much money his wife’s company earned from the sale of the luxury car, but it is not difficult to conclude that it is a five-figure amount. On the other hand, the fact is that the Law on Prevention of Corruption has a serious omission that allows a public official to hide valuable property through a company owned by a close family member, without having an explicit obligation to report that property. The recommendation of the legal advisor at the non-governmental organization Action for Social Justice, Ines Mrdovic, is that the Law on Prevention of Corruption should be changed in that part in terms of recording that obligation.
“The existing legal solution is very bad because it gives space to public officials to hide property worth millions through their family members.” What, then, is the purpose of controlling the property of an official, if the law gives the possibility not to report the immovable and movable property of the company, which is owned by a member of the household? For example, the firm of a member of the official’s household buys real estate worth two million euros and the official has no obligation to report it. Well, isn’t it an undisputed public interest for APC to determine whether the two million properties were purchased from legal sources? So, this is a huge space for potential abuses, and the law should be changed as soon as possible and clearly prescribe the obligation to report this as well” said Mrdović.
Authors: Stanko Radulovic i Bojana Moskov
