MANS again invites the Government of Montenegro and the line to the Ministry of Economy to extend the public debate on amendments to the law on bankruptcy, and to organize round tables at which they should discuss the proposed solutions, especially in the north where the economy has been destroyed precisely through bankruptcy procedures.
Public hearing runs until January 25th, and given that it is one of the systematic laws that has a huge impact on thousands of workers not only government officials, but also private companies, it would be extremely hypocritical that the whole process of making law to be implemented behind their backs and interested expert public.
This is even more important because series of solutions offered in the draft of the law on bankruptcy is very problematic and their adoption would mean further destruction of the Montenegrin economy and sale of valuable assets for almost nothing, with the absence of criminal liability of bankruptcy trustees, which in recent years thousands of workers left without anything and contributed that the existence they achieve through social assistance.
MANS considered particularly troubling the fact that some of the new legal solutions are designed in a way to use bankruptcy as a model of privatization of the remaining large state-owned companies, that the Government successfully for years fail to privatize through sale of its package of shares, and in that way find interested buyers.
In that sense, is very illustrative example of the Adriatic shipyard from Bijela, for which the Government openly announces that it will sell it through bankruptcy. Namely, when is taken into account the new solution in the law that gives to the trustee the ability to sell the company’s assets even for fifths below its real value, only in this case it is clear how devastating consequences that will have.
With regard that the case of the shipyard is not alone, and bearing in mind sale of AP from Podgorica, which is literally donated through bankruptcy to the controversial businessman Veselin Pejovic from Niksic, MANS believes that it is necessary that in the debate the general public is involved, workers before all.
In addition, the current practice shows that many local tycoons used bankruptcy to get valuable real estate on the two most common ways – for a small sum they bought companies that were already in bankruptcy, or they purchased shares on the stock market, and when they became majority owners they initiated bankruptcy.
In both cases, the goal of the new owners was not to revive firms, but sale of valuable real estate that later were misappropriated for millions and thus profited while workers lost their jobs and were left on the street.
Because of this, it is essential that as the general public, especially damaged workers, and those who would be able to feel the harmful effects of the proposed solutions at their own examples engage in discussion on this subject, in order to reach the best legal provisions, which will primarily protect workers, and not to be at their expense.
MANS reminds that last week and from the Parliamentary Committee for Anti-Corruption asked to soon as possible consider the initiative that we submitted together with the NGO “Stecajci u Crnoj Gori “, which seeks a hearing on relevant ministers on conducted bankruptcy proceedings in the north of the country, and at the same time to give its contribution to the debate about the solutions proposed by the Government.
MANS
