(Podgorica, September 19. 2013.) – The Tax Administration and the Department of Real State almost overnight and without informing the public, removed identification numbers of private individuals and companies from its registers that can be searched on the Internet, which represents a significant step backwards when political will is declared toward an increase of the transparency and more determined fight against corruption and organized crime.
By removing the identification numbers of individuals and companies from websites of the Central business registry and the Department of Real State practically confirmation of their identity is impossible, which makes difficult research in civil sector and the media, who have been so far, for a reason of incomplete and politically dependent prosecution, almost the only initiators of investigations of organized crimes and corruption at a high level.
Only MANS in the past few years using also and data from official registers of companies and property submitted dozens of criminal charges, documenting a number of relations between controversial individuals and senior public officials and prosecutors which practically presented how criminal groups look and what impact they have on public interest and the lives of the citizens of Montenegro.
Beside that, the identification numbers in the registers of companies and real state helped us to discover many cases of false reporting of assets and concealment of share in domestic companies and foreign off shore companies that belong to Montenegrin public officials and members of their families, and thus practically we prove their illegal enrichment.
The ability to search companies and to identify their founders and directors helped us to discover a number of cases of tender set and connections between public officials and the companies that participated in tenders.
Practice like this one allows prosecution in Montenegro to have loose-fitting role than it had until now, because the concealment of information about individuals and companies will significantly slow down the investigations that are undertaken by civil society organizations and the media, and by doing so will lower the pressure on the prosecution to create a specific result.
Finally, by this the space for civil society participation in the fight against corruption and organized crime is significantly limited, which is in direct conflict with the requests by the European Union and what we have to accomplish during negotiating chapters 23 and 24. Concealment of information that may point on the obvious corruption and the possible existence of a scheme of organized crime, is not the way that can bring us far in negotiations with the European Union, especially if we have in mind the current capacity of the Montenegrin police and prosecution and more than obvious need for many more social factors that need to be involved in the fight against organized crime and corruption.
We believe that this move of the Tax Administration and the Department of Real State absolutely works in favor of the criminal organizations in Montenegro and their supporters in the Government of Montenegro, so the significant progress in the fight against corruption and organized crime can not be expected until the state institutions with their steps stop to make of Montenegro a real “safest house of mafia” in the world.
Therefore it is more than necessary that these information are still publicly available, because that makes it possible to significantly reduce the space for hiding conflicts of interest and relationships between public officials and members of criminal groups in mutual deals.
Dejan Milovac
Deputy of the Executive Director
