(Podgorica, 9 July 2013) – The Ministry of Economy has once again attempted to fool the Montenegrin public following the announcement of court charges against Vladimir Kavaric, this time hiding behind the European Commission’s Delegation in Podgorica, attempting to shift the obvious conflict of interests that was created in the process of producing an Energy Strategy and shifting the blame on someone else.
As was stated by Green Home and MANS in the legal charges filed, the problem with COWI didn’t begin when it was commissioned to prepare documentation for the Strategy for the Development of Energy in Montenegro, which was financed through the EU Delegation in Podgorica, but when the Ministry decided to hire a sister-company from the same consortium for the Strategic Analysis of the Energy Strategy on the Environment.
As we’ve already noted, the EU Delegation hired Norway’s COWI for the planning, after which the Ministry hired its sister company COWI (Denmark), which was financed and supported by Germany’s KfW.
The conflict of interest in this case relates to a situation that was created by the Ministry by hiring the Danish arm of COWI. This meant that companies forming part of the same consortium were in a position to both design Montenegro’s energy strategy as well as assess the degree to which such a strategy would impact the environment.
Green Home and MANS, during public debates about these documents, highlighted the obvious conflict of interest to the Ministry of Economy. We noted that the procedure was being carried out contrary to the stipulations of the State of Montenegro, though these warnings were ignored by the Ministry.
When it comes to COWI (Norway) and COWI (Denmark), there is no doubt that we are dealing with closely related companies, which are part of the same consortium that operates subsidiaries in 22 countries. These two sister-companies share a Board of Directors as well as an Executive Board. There can be no doubt that the companies were thus in a conflict of interest in their Montenegro dealings.
COWI (Norway)’s statement claiming that it isn’t in a conflict of interest with COWI (Denmark) is understandable given that the firm is seeking to double its profits in Montenegro. However, given that the Ministry of Finance is being funded by citizens it should seek a strategy that benefits that public and not COWI or the energy lobby, according to whose wishes the newest Energy Strategy is being created.
Instead of the law, Minister Kavaric has consulted the declaration of the COWI consortium and judged that it is sufficient for removing all suspicions of a conflict of interest. Besides this, part of the declaration that relates to the communication between the two COWI enterprises is not credible. The law is clear that the same company should not be involved in the two very different aspects of strategic planning – the planning phase and the analysis of its impact – which occurred with COWI’s involvement.
Green Home and MANS expect the relevant institutions to immediately investigate our case regarding one of Montenegro’s most important strategic documents in order to avoid on-going suspicions of a conflict of interest and the numerous violations of laws and regulations in this regard.
