Lists of residents of Berane that yesterday, on election day, received so-called one-time financial assistance in local boards of DPS, is another irrefutable proof that this party brutally abuses public funds to buy votes in the field. This also shows the extent to which it was necessary to make amendments to the Law on financing political parties, especially in the part that limits payments of any fees and social benefits on the eve of the election.
During yesterday’s election vote buying happened again simply because no one of the key actors of the scandal “Snapshot” did not politically nor criminally punished for the brutal abuse of public funds during the previous elections, so there was not a real barrier to repeat the complete scenario once again in Berane.
MANS previously in the case of the Center Welfare Center from Pljevlja proved the existence of parallel DPS structure that during the last election was occupied only by buying votes through social assistance, which is the only case in which the Montenegrin prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for the abuse of state funds.
After that, a similar scenario was repeated in Plav and Mojkovac, and now in Berane as well.
A few days before yesterday’s election MANS warned that a similar scenario is possible because the specific details of the payments of social assistance during the previous elections showed that DPS undoubtedly achieves a greater political impact on the field abusing public funds.
Beside the basic information about the payments of social assistance in that municipality, from the Center for Social Work from Berane we requested and detailed information about to whom and in what amount social assistance was paid and on what basis. This requirement included analytic cards from the Center in which these data are contained, as well as the specific requirements of the citizens referred to the Center, and decisions on which basis money was paid.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of these data was not submitted to MANS within legally prescribed time limit, which opens a huge space for doubt that, as in the case of the Center for Social Work from Pljevlja, money designated for the social assistance was used by DPS activists for vote buying in the field.
This especially refers on the so-called analytic cards that contain detailed information on the spending of state funds in the institutions, so therefore they must have the character of a public document. The Center for Social Work from Berane did not submit to MANS these information as well, even though it was obligated to do it by the Law on Free Access to Information.
MANS will continue to pursue these documents in the legally prescribed procedure, but also we invite interested members of the Parliament that the information on controversial welfare payments require from the Center for Social Work, using the rights from the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament.
MANS.
