(Podgorica, 15 March 2012) – The Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) continues to manipulate data and to conceal key information concerning its business dealings (especially regarding contracts for the import and export of electricity that were signed with other companies). The bulk of the electricity imports carried out in 2011 were tied to four firms that received some €45-million in exchange.
Of the four companies with which EPCG is doing business, currently three of these are being investigated in the region fro corruption, including: Vuk Hamović’s EFT, Vojin Lazaravić’s Rudnap Group and the Korlea Invest company.
Hamović is currently under investigation by Croatia’s specialized anti-organized crime unit, USKOK, which is looking into allegations that he engaged in bribery in order to secure a contract for ETF from the former director of Croatia’s main electricity supplier.
USKOK is also investigating the purchase of expensive electricity in the case of Korlea Invest, a case that includes the former Crotian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. It is estimated that Croatia’s state budget lost some €84-million as a result of the contracts signed with EFT and Korlea Invest.
Croatia’s USKOK is also looking into electricity trading with Lazarević’s Rudnap, which is also suspected of concluding secret deals in neighboring Bosnia in order to secure privileges for his company (a case in which the current Minister of Foreign Affairs for Bosnia, Zlatko Lagumdžija, is implicated).
EFT’s dealings in Serbia are also associated with a number of controversies. These include the one in 2004, when Lazarović and Hamović were still partners in EFT, when the company landed an exclusive contracts for the import and export of electricity without a tender. The latest controversies surrounding EFT in neighboring countries are very similar to the situation in Montenegro, which EPCG is trying to “sell” to the public as a normal state of affairs.
At the moment, the media buzz in Serbia is filled with information relating to the fact that the Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPS) – in the period between 2008 and 2010 – had paid companies tied to Hamović and Lazović some €7.6-million more than they had received for the same quantity of power from EPS.
Unfortunately, this is the reason for which MANS requested that all of the EPCG’s business contracts be released, since we began to suspect at that stage that Montenegro’s public power provider was doing business with such shady firms and individuals (under investigation in a number of countries in the region for corruption and bribery scandals).
MANS is asking that EPCG’s business dealings remain public in light of the recently uncovered controversy concerning the privatization of Montenegrin Telekom. This last case clearly demonstrated that a number of key officials and their close relatives were not immune to corruption and that there exists a justified suspicion that the electricity bills being paid by citizens are inflated to incorporate the price of kickbacks.
We refuse EPCG’s invitation to access their documents behind closed doors at their HQ and far from the public eye, since this information should be publicly accessible to all. We thus call on the EPCG, once again, to release all of its import-export contracts if it has nothing to hide. Citizens have the right to know why they are paying such high electricity prices and who is profiting from these enormous energy bills.
