We call on the Parliament of Montenegro to adopt amendments to the proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code to enable greater responsibility and control of the State Prosecutor’s Office on filed criminal complaints, particularly in cases of illicit enrichment of public officials and other forms of high-level corruption, and organized crime .
Specifically, the proposed amendments to the law envisage that the applicant of the criminal charge may file a complaint on the work of the prosecution only if there is no damaged party or it is unknown, which in practice rarely happens. This practically abolishes any kind of civil control in handling the prosecution on the criminal charges for corruption and organized crime.
When it comes to statistics on corruption and organized crime, statistics show that MANS annually separately files a highest number of complaints to the competent prosecution, significantly more than the police, protector of property rights or by the prosecutorial organization as its official duty.
As in all of those cases the State is impaired, by explaining the proposed changes we come to the conclusion that the complaint against the prosecution can only handle a representative of the Government, which never actually filed criminal charges. In practice this would mean that the complaint on rejected criminal charge filled by MANS on corruption or organized crime can only handle a representative of the state, which is completely absurd solution, bearing in mind that in such cases the representative can not have the evidence and information available to MANS or some another applicant.
The best example is the case of the “Carine” in which the budget of the Capital City, because of the illegal sale of municipal construction land, was damaged by more than 11 million euros and in which the protector of property rights did not react. The protector did not even filled charges for the cases of massive tax evasion by companies related to the former mayor of Bar. That protector never dealt with damages done to the State caused by the affairs of Ministers Gvozdenovic, Lazovic or neither he responded regarding any major privatization corruption. From such protector, certainly it can not be expected to deal with the apparent illegal enrichment by public officials, or to respond in cases of Telekom, Prva Bank or other subjects related to the family Djukanovic.
So it is quite illogical that the proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code deprive applicants of criminal charges the possibility to file a complaint on prosecutor when they are not satisfied with his work, and if such changes are adopted it will be completely senseless any work control in the prosecutor’s office, precisely in those areas where the European Union from Montenegro expects the most concrete results.
MANS therefore invites the Parliament to adopt the proposed amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code and enable the control of prosecution, particularly in cases of high-level corruption and organized crime, so it is not limited by the good will of the representatives of States, but to establish an effective mechanism that will allow a full control of the prosecution, both by citizens who file the applications, and the top of the institution.
MANS
