Secondary legislation signed by the Minister of Interior (MOI) in 2015 stipulates that public procurement documents are to be retained for five years only
Rasko Konjevic, Minister of Interior
Although it is not known how the documents on the procurement of ID cards have gone missing, based on Konjevic’s act, entire MOI documents on public procurement carried out before 2011 could be permanently destroyed.
Stevan Radunovic, director of the State Archives of Montenegro, told Dan that this institution had approved the list of categories of current records of the MOI, and that the adequate retention period was determined.
Secondary legislation signed in February 2015 by the then minister of the Police Rasko Konjevic enabled the Ministry of Interior to destroy all public procurement documents which were older than five years.
This may well be the reason why MOI does not possess documents related to the tender for making ID cards which was invited in 2007.
In February 2015, pursuant to the Law on Archives, Konjevic laid down the list of categories of current records with the retention period, which stipulates that documents on public procurement are to be retained for five years only.
After the deadline, the Ministry of Interior can destroy the entire set of public procurement data, starting from bids, complaints, to decisions and records of procurement, purchases or open procedures, approvals for concluding direct agreements, invoices, agreements on providing various kinds of services, bank guarantees, etc.
According to the act signed by Konjevic, it is possible to destroy all documents concerning public procurements which were carried out before 2011, but it remains unclear which documents were actually disposed of.
Namely, in the official response to the question asked by Dan, MOI claims that in the last five years only documents concerning disciplinary cases of civil servants and employees in the period from 1987 to 2004 were destroyed, as well as the daily bulletins in the field of public security from 2000 to 2007.
However, late this year, MANS Investigation Center, under the Law on Free Access to Information, requested from MOI to submit reports on implemented public procurement procedures for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. MOI submitted MANS a report for 2010, but not for earlier years, on the grounds that the data retention period in procurement procedures was five years.
“A contracting authority is obliged to retain public procurement documents for at least five years, in accordance with the law. Exceptionally, a contracting body is obliged to retain the public procurement documents the agreed value of which is up to €15,000 for three years, in accordance with the law,” the Ministry of Interior said.
A new police minister in the government of electoral trust, Goran Danilovic, acknowledged a few days ago that he had requested the documents on the acquisition of ID cards from 2007, which turned out not to be biometric, and received a response from the Administration Office that during examining the archives from the said period it had failed to find the requested documents.
Evidence destroyed before the statute of limitation expires
Public procurement documents serve as relevant evidence to the competent authorities when it comes to a series of offenses, especially criminal offences against official duty. Montenegrin Criminal Code stipulates that the statute of limitations of the criminal offense of abuse of official position will commence within ten years from committing the criminal offense for which a prison sentence of over five years may be handed down.
However, according to MOI’s subordinate act, documents that serve as evidence in criminal proceedings can be destroyed after the retention period of five years, although the statute of limitations for the criminal offense of abuse of official position is a full ten years.
Konjevic got consent from State Archives
Director of the State Archives of Montenegro, Stevan Radunovic, told Dan that last year, this institution approved the list of categories of current records of the MOI, and that adequate retention period was determined.
“Retention period for public procurement documents is in accordance with the Law on Public Procurement,” said Radunovic.
Authors:
Milica Krgovic
Ines Mrdovic
This text is created with the support of the European Union within the project “Zero Tolerance to Corruption”. Network for Affirmation of Non-Governmental Sector – MANS is solely responsible for the contents of this article, and the views taken herein shall not in any case be considered as those of the European Union.
