(Podgorica, 11 December 2012) – The first information obtained by MANS, by comparing the property that Montenegrin prosecutors reported to the Commission for the Prevention of Conflicts of Interest and official data gathered from the Real Estate Directorate, demonstrate the absolute veracity of judgements concerning the depth of corruption and conflicts of interest affecting the Montenegrin judiciary.
The High State Prosecutor in Podgorica and four of his deputies, of the existing ten, didn’t report correct information to the Commission regarding their property holdings, which can be concluded by comparing the information from the Real Estate Directorate.
The last European Commission report states that: “there still does not exist sufficient oversight over corruption and conflict of interest in the judiciary,” that “officials reports concerning their property are still not being verified,” and that it is “necessary to further strengthen the mechanisms for preventing corruption in the judiciary.”
The first phase of our research included the prosecutor and his deputies in Podgorica’s High State Prosecutors’ Office, while by the end of the research, we will also include the other prosecutors and their deputies. Information indicates that the enormous property that is owned by the families of state prosecutors, generally registered to their spouses and children, but that we also find the greatest differences in relation to the official data of the Real Estate Directorate.
The High State Prosecutor, Vesna Jovicevic, who is a member of the Prosecutors’ Council, reported to the Commission for Conflicts of Interest that her husband owns an apartment in Podgorica of 68 sq m that he purchased, as well as a house in Rijeka Crnojevica that is 78 sq m large. However, information on the Real Estate Directorate’s website indicate that the house in Rijeka Crnojevica is 194 sq m large, 116 more than reported to the Commission (while claiming that they had built this home).
The deputy to the persecutor Tatjana Begovic, reported to the Commission that her husband possesses in Podgorica an apartment of 65 sq m, a house in Danilovgrad that is 126 sq m large, some land and forests in Bandici, in Danilovgrad, around 318,299 sq m, as well as a parcel in Herceg Novi that is 1,360 sq m. Nevertheless, information from the Real Estate Directorate indicate something else. That is, for her husband, in addition to the officially declared apartments and houses, there is also a residential space in Bandici that is 116 sq m large, as well as another in Herceg Novi of 141 sq m. When it comes to land, according to the official date of the Cadastre, there are 16,218 sq m in Tolosi, which were obtained as an inheritance, 77,002 sq m in Bandici and 1,141 sq m in Herceg Novi.
The depute of the high state prosecutore Vladimir Gilic reported to the Commission for Conflicts of Interest that he is the owner of an apartment in Podgorica that is 67 sq m large and houses in Verusi that are 41 sq m. Furthermore, he also reported that he owns land in Verusi that is 800 sq m, and that he owns 428 sq m of a parcel in Donja Lastva, in the Tivat municipality. However, information from the Real Estate Directorate show that under Gilic’s name in Tivat there are apartments of 48 sq m and land that is 363 sq m, which were obtained by means of purchases.
Gilic also reported that his wife owns in Tivat over 4,600 sq m of land and nearly 800 sq m of residential space, which she obtained by inheritance and as a gift. Similarly, he reported that she posses another 80 sq m of non-residential space and a garage that is 34 sq m. ON the other hand, the information of the Real Estate Directorate precisely show that she possesses 745 sq m of residential space, as well as 109 sq m of commercial space, but no non-residential spaces of garages. The means of obtaining the property is listed as “multiple means,” without giving more specific information whether we are dealing with an inheritance or some other means of obtaining these properties.
The deputy of the high state prosecutor Ljiljana Lakic reported that with her husband she owns a 46 sq m apartment in Podgorica, as well as 40,000 sq m of inherited land in Danilovgrad. However, Lakic ‘forgot’ to report that she owns residential space of some 60 sq m in Danilovgrad, which can be seen in the data of the Real Estate Directorate.
Similarly, neither does the information provided to the Commission by the depute of our high state prosecutor Sanja Jovicevic totally match with the date in the Real Estate Directorate. That is, she reported that her husband owns 803 sq m in Podgorica, two apartments of some 60 sq m each, as well as 82 sq m of non-residential space. However, the website of the Real Estate Directorate also lists 706 sq m of land in Doljani, which was purchased, and residential space at the same location of some 97 sq m.
All these prosecutors have a legal obligation to investigate any public officials that are suspected of having illegally obtained their property and that they conduct investigations that would include information provided to the Commission. There is therefore sufficient reason to suspect that these same prosecutors have consciously violated the law and misled the Commission when reporting their holdings.
Such behaviour of those who are meant to pursue violators of the law and uphold the rule of law, is yet another confirmation that the prosecutorial arm of the judiciary is a serious obstacle to the rule of law in this state and a serious break on further European integration.
MANS will, following the publication of similar data for all prosecutors and their deputies, will submit the entirety of the information gathered to the Special State Prosecutor for Corruption and Organized Crime and demand that it investigate the sources of the property that was reported to various state institutions.
