(Podgorica, 16 April 2013) – Today MANS requested that the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) release information about the number of households who’ve had their utility debts to that company written-off in the past year. MANS also wanted to know on what basis these write-offs were made, given allegations that votes were purchased in this way in the lead up to the October 2012 parliamentary and April 2013 presidential elections.
MANS has received reports from numerous citizens claiming that the EPCG was writing-off debts to specific households in exchange for supporting the ruling coalition in the recent parliamentary and presidential elections.
Official data show that in the first 9-months of 2011, a non-election year, the EPCG wrote-off €4.3-million in household electricity debts. This can be determined by examining the financial statements of the company, under the line item for “adjusted expenses on claims of domestic customers – households.”
In the same nine month period for 2012, that is in the lead-up to the parliamentary elections held last October, the EPCG wrote-off nearly €13-million in electricity debts. This is three times more than the amount of write-offs in the previous, non-election year.
It is possible that this amount is actually higher since the information available to MANS doesn’t include data for last October, November and December. Furthermore, MANS lacks current data on the write-off of electricity bills for the period covering January-April of this year.
The EPCG has also been accused repeatedly of writing-off massive debts for enterprises that are close to the ruling-coalition. We have demanded that the EPCG provide a list of companies that have had their debts written-off, as well as the criteria used to determine exemptions from paying electricity bills.
The fact that we’re dealing with concrete accusations here is further underscored by official EPCG data indicating that in 2011 it wrote-off another €5-million under the line-item “other spending,” which is dedicated for enterprises.
We would like to remind the EPCG that they can no longer hide behind their previous position that they aren’t required to release any information about their business dealings, since a new Law on Free Access to Information was recently adopted that requires to EPCG to comply with information requests.
All debt write-offs are paid for in the end by Montenegro’s citizens through higher energy bills.
In the past few days, MANS has uncovered a whole range of abuses relating to the use of state resources to buy votes for the ruling party. This has included increased payments to the poorest, severance packages for workers who lost jobs during the transition, party-linked hiring in the public administration and state enterprises, as well as manipulation of the electoral lists.
The trade in votes through debt-forgiveness is one of the many irregularities linked to the electoral process, for which someone will have to be held accountable.
