(Podgorica, 25 June 2012) – The case of the Regulatory Agency for Energy (RAE) once again demonstrates the Montenegro’s parliament is little more than a captured institution that is incapable of serving as a check on the executive, but only acts as a machine for executing the government’s wishes and bolstering the interests of the First Family and its close associates at the expense of citizens.
Given that the RAE should in principle be held accountable by the parliament, it is worth noting that its leaders have never had to substantially testify before the parliament in spite of a number of catastrophic decisions they’ve made over the years concerning the price of electricity. On the other hand, the consequences of such poor decision-making are borne monthly by the citizens who feel the impact in their pockets.
In this way, we’ve been paying until recently for the theft of electricity, which is not a normal appearance in other developed countries, while for years we are covering enormous technical losses on the supply network from our wallets (i.e. paying for something we did not use).
The RAE has repeatedly allowed the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) to get away with these losses, regardless of the fact that the energy company for a third year in a row continues to hold tens of millions of euros from the partial privatization of the firm in the First Bank (thereby shoring up its liquidity). This money is being kept in deposits instead of being invested in the modernization of the electricity supply network, which would reduce network losses by a significant amount.
In previous years, Montenegrin courts have reversed four RAE decisions that were taken at the expense of citizens. A decision is expected for the latest one from January, which would increase the price of electricity by 7%, while the Constitutional Court is to consider an initiative to annul the current methodology that the RAE uses to calculate the price of electricity, which will be used to justify new increases.
All these decisions have passed by the people’s elected representatives sitting in parliament, thereby demonstrating their powerlessness when it comes to protecting the already degraded social condition of the country’s citizens. MPs often serve as a rubber stamp for the government’s decisions, prioritizing the interests of the energy cartel and the Djukanovic family.
Until now we’ve seen that the regulatory hearings of RAE leaders has been little more than a sheer farce. No one has ever had to face the non-confidence of the parliament, regardless of the fact that judicial rulings have confirmed that they have adopted a series of damaging decisions.
Similarly, when it comes to the undersea cable project [that is being developed in coordination with Italy’s Terna], the directors of the RAE in parliament have never explained whether (and why) they promised to Italian companies a calculation of electricity that would please their appetites. It is worth noting that at the same time they decided “on their own” to force citizens to doubly finance their investments.
This is only one in a series of cases that unambiguously show that the parliament cannot fulfill its control function and secure the public interest, meaning that opposition MPs should leave the parliament in order to stop giving legitimacy to controversial decisions adopted by this legislative body.
People’s representatives shouldn’t serve as a decor for decisions that are first cooked up in the kitchen of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), and are then modified by the cabinet of our interning Prime Minister Igor Luksic, and then are adopted by the majoritarian voting machinery of the DPS and its parliamentary allies. In the end the whole operation is charged to the citizens.
It’s a fact that over 30,000 signatures have already been gathered, in only four days, to support the initiative launched by MANS to reverse the Law on Taxes and the methodology used by the RAE to calculate the electricity price. This should be a sufficient signal to opposition MPs that there is nothing more they can do while sitting in their parliamentary chairs. Since they cannot defend the public interest in any case, they should opt for a boycott of the parliament.
