The contract on the sale of 100 percent of shares of “Montenegro Defence Industry” was signed on March 4th, and the company was sold for 680 thousand euros to the consortium of companies “ATL – Atlantic Technologies” Ltd from Israel and “CRPS-Impex” from Serbia, whose bid was evaluated as valid. The new buyer was also pledged to invest an additional 400 thousand euros in the modernization of the enterprise.
MANS using the Law on free access to information at the beginning February of this year asked the Council for privatization to enable us to access to the bids submitted to public tender announced on September 16th of last year, when it was announced the sale of 100 percent of capital of “Montenegro Defence Industry”.
However, the Council for privatization has rejected the request, on the grounds of the confidential information relating to the safety, defense, foreign, monetary and economic policy of the country. The Council also referred to its decision on determining the degree of confidentiality of data for a number of privatization adopted on the session on January 27th this year.
In that decision, the Council announced as secret the information on 13 state companies that are currently in the process of privatization or they will be, stating that disclosure of information contained in tender documentation and offers would caused adverse consequences for the safety and interests of Montenegro, which is of greater importance than the public interest to be familiar with this information.
Decision of the Council allows access to classified information only to its members and the members of tender commissions, while declassification period occurs after five years, which in fact denies the members of the Montenegrin Parliament and all interested public the very important information. Against the decision of the Council for privatization MANS submitted lawsuit to the Administrative Court.
It is obvious that the Government tries to hide from the public key information on individuals and companies to whom are sold valuable state companies, which already at the beginning proved an example sale of military company “Montenegro Defence Industry”. The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) recently reported data that links Israeli company “ATL – Atlantic Technologies” Ltd with Serge Miller, who is in its native Belgium, suspected of illegal weapons sale, drug trafficking and money laundering.
According to the BIRN, the sole owner and director of the Israeli company ATL is Israeli Agmon Saked, but the data from the Bulgarian business register shewed that Miller more than a year, until June 2014, officially was co-owner of ATL’s subsidiaries in Bulgaria, following sale of his stake. Belgian media have previously reported that the company ATL has an office in the building of diamond stock in Antwerpen, at the address of several of Miller’s companies, and later the data was removed from the website.
In addition, the director of “Montenegro Defence Industry” Zoran Damjanovic confirmed to BIRN that Miller visited offices of the company in Podgorica as a representative of ATL, but later stated that Miller was present as a “friend of the company from Tel Aviv”.
Miller was arrested on the basis of an Interpol warrant on the state crossing Bozaj after departure from Montenegro and immediately after signing contract of sale for “Montenegro Defence Industry”, and according to a statement of the Montenegrin Police Administration, on March 17 of this year, he is charged with organizing and financing of import of large cocaine shipments from South America, and the illegal transfer of weapons on which basis has been made a criminal capital in the amount of more than five million US dollars.
According to the indictment, Miller participated in the diversion of profits acquired from these activities and their investment in economic structure. Currently in Podgorica he is awaiting extradition.
After these allegations, in every law regulated state, a competent privatization body would automatically reviewed the contract of sale, Directorate for Prevention of Money Laundering would verify the origin of the money used to pay the shares of the state company, and the prosecution would respond urgently to benefit from the possibility of Miller’a detention and to collect information about the reasons of his visit to Podgorica and meetings with leaders of the company “Montenegro Defence Industry”.
Instead, the authorities do not react on this case, and today is more than clear that the decision of the Council for Privatization to declare as secret the information on the privatization of a number of key companies is harmful and contrary to the public interest, and it is calculated in order to sale valuable state resources far from the public eye.
MANS
