Decision of the director of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, Sreten Radonjic, not to grant the whistleblower status to Patricija Pobric proves his blind loyalty to the ruling structure, which renders meaningless both the law and the very existence of the Agency.
It is widely known that Ms. Pobric has warned the public that the state money is being misused for party purposes and made the evidence public, which is why she has lost her job. Even the special prosecutor’s office found reasonable doubt of a criminal offence with corruption elements and therefore put Nebojsa Obradovic, the director of the Railway Directorate, under arrest.
However, the director of the Agency has found that there was no corruption there and that Ms. Pobric is not a whistleblower, as she had given the information to an MP who revealed them to the Parliament, instead of filing a formal complaint to the Agency herself.
Sreten Radonjic rationalizes his doings by procedural shortcomings and grants the whistleblower status to the MP that revealed the problem, which is contrary to the law and Article 54, which stipulates that the Agency is compelled to initiate proceedings ex officio, based on its own findings, rather than wait for a complaint from the whistleblower. According to the aforementioned article, Radonjic was obliged to protect Patricija Pobric and become interested into the case as soon as it was presented to the public. Instead, he has done everything he could to suppress any citizen who decides to report corruption.
Such act of the director of the Agency is particularly worrying when taking into consideration the fact that Pobric has reported abuse of the state budget, so the Agency is now more than ever obliged to prevent the abuse of public funds. Therefore, Radonjic’s decision is a message to all of those who might report corruption that they cannot count on the Agency’s protection.
Thus, Radonjic has clearly demonstrated his blind loyalty to the ruling structure, headed by Djukanovic, who had already publicly reviled Pobric, wishing to prevent any other whistleblower from revealing information on cases of corruption and abuse of public funds.
As a member of the Council of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, I will insist that Radonjic’s doings on this case be included in the discussion during the following assembly of the Council, as I am convinced that he has violated the legal obligation to protect Patricija Pobric ex officio and thus jeopardized the authority of the Agency with regard to the prevention of abuse of public funds in the pre-election period.
Vanja Ćalović
Executive Director
