(Podgorica, 10 June 2011) – Instead of releasing all information relating to who has made use of its official plane, at taxpayer expense, the Government of Montenegro is attempting to hide this information from citizens using procedural machinations.
It is undeniable that the General Secretariat of the Government of Montenegro already has in its possession all the logs relating to flights made by the official government plane; especially given the fact that this obligation is clearly defined in the Directions on the Work of the Air-Service of the General Secretariat of the Government of Montenegro. It is therefore unnecessary to prepare any new documentation as the General Secretariat of the Government now claims.
Prior to any Government flight, it is necessary that the user of the service submit a Request to the General Secretariat, detailing one’s personal information, one’s destination, including all stops along the way, as well as any information pertaining to other travelers accompanying this person.
It is precisely the copies of all these requests, for every flight from 1 January 2009 to 28 February 2011 that MANS requested from the General Secretary of the Government. It should be clear to even a small child that all the General Secretariat has to do is photocopy these requests and hand them over to MANS in order to comply with the Law on Free Access to Information.
However, the insistent refusal of the General Secretariat of the Government to submit this information is totally contrary to the praxis of transparency that Montenegro’s new Premier Igor Lukšić is allegedly committed to. It is for this reason that we call on Lukšić to immediately secure full respect for the Law on Free Access to Information and to ensure that the General Secretariat of the Government submit all information to us concerning who has been using the government’s plane.
Unfortunately, this current episode concerning government flights is not the only example of attempts to hide information that is of public interest to Montenegro’s citizens. For more than half a year, Lukšić’s government has been hiding information as to how Britain’s Cubus Lux was able to win a tender for the long-term lease of Valdanos, as well as information about the building of an undersea energy cable linking Montenegro to Italy that is worth several hundreds of millions of euros (and in spite of the clear recommendation to do so for the cable that was recently made by the European Parliament).
It is absolutely unacceptable that information concerning the disposal of property and government resources, especially those that could point to violations of the law or corruption, are not only hidden from the government, but that within the Government there exist organized efforts to defend some individuals’ private interests and profits.
Vuk Maraš
