(Podgorica, 30 November 2011) – The prosecution of corruption and organized crime in Montenegro’s public procurement sector is still far from satisfactory. Until now there hasn’t been a single case of grand corruption that was processed to its end by the Montenegrin police and judiciary. In its reports on Montenegro’s progress towards EU membership, the European Commission continuously identifies public procurement – along with urban planning and privatization – as most vulnerable to corruption. Nevertheless, there are still no major investigations into violations of the Law on Public Procurement.
Of particular concern is the role played by the Public Procurement Control Commission (PPCC) itself, which should serve as the first line of defense in protecting the public interest in the public procurement system. Marko Lazarević, the PPCC’s actual president, has been the Commission’s head for seven of its ten year existence. During his tenure, this apparently independent government body has never uncovered a single case of corruption in the procurement processes. Lazarević has never even spoken about corruption and organized crime in public in this time. This is in spite of the fact that international organizations have consistently warned Montenegro that things need to change and improve (particularly when it comes to procurement policy).
The case of the tender for the sanitation of the tailings dump near Mojkovac is but one of the numerous possible corruption cases in the public procurement system that MANS is currently investigating. These cases indicate a pressing need for greater transparency and the greater monitoring of the multimillion euro tenders that are launched for public works projects.
When it comes to the example of the Mojkovac tailings dump, the PPCC acted contrary to its institutional mandate stating that it should: “secure the competitive behavior of the bidders and the transparency of the public procurement process.” In fact, it did the opposite, since one of Lazarević’s decisions single-handedly eliminated ten of the eleven bidders for this tender. This enabled Podgorica-based Bemax to win by default. The retroactive introduction of criteria and licensing requirements that were not included in the original tender is normally unheard of – though such an “innovation” might be something that Montenegro’s PPCC can be proud of.
It is particularly interesting to note that the competition was eliminated following Bemax’s own intervention. A fact that caused MANS to suggest to the Special State Prosecutor for Organized Crime that it should investigate the links between this firm and the Commission (in order to determine whether Bemax attempted to exert its influence on the PPCC to take such a decision).
A similar situation is evident in the selection of a company to provide oversight for work at the tailings dump, which MANS discovered was on Bemax’s payroll (providing a textbook example of a conflict of interests).
These examples help explain why Montenegro continuously receives negative ratings when it comes to the transparency and legitimacy of its public procurement process. Mr. Lazarević has chosen to turn a blind eye to such criticisms, resorting instead to the basest demagoguery in order to justify his failure to lead an important public institution dedicated to fighting corruption.
Nevertheless, it’s unclear why Lazarević is so opposed to the call made by MANS for companies to report any violations of the public procurement law to us. It’s also unclear why he was so strenuously opposed to more light being shed on this area. We are sorry to see that Lazaravić doesn’t see MANS as a partner and that he refuses to cooperate in the really difficult task of securing the legal functioning of the public procurement system.
Regardless, we would like to remind Lazarević that regardless of his personal experience at his job and the results he believes were achieved so far, the presidency of the PPCC is a public office for which he is accountable to other state agencies and to the Montenegrin public.
MANS once again calls on companies and entrepreneurs that might have information concerning violations of the Law on Public Procurement to contact us and help us make these processes more transparent and resistant to corruption.
