After calling parliamentary elections, the government of Montenegro decided to allocate €630,000 for hiring 80 new workers to the private companies associated with the ruling party, which is more than half of the total funds allocated as the support to direct investments, the documents analyzed by MANS Investigation Center and Daily Vijesti show.
At the government session held on 27 July this year, two weeks after the calling of parliamentary elections, a decision was made to allocate funds to six companies of which at least two can be directly linked to the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). Only for these two companies, the government allocated the sum of about €630,000 to support creating new jobs by the end of this year, i.e. the sum ranging from €7,000 to €8,000 for each of the 80 envisaged vacancies.
According to the decision, the company “Meso-promet” based in Bijelo Polje received funds in the amount of €560,000, and under the investment project the company committed to hire 70 workers by the end of the year in the sector of meat industry. This company is owned by a senior official of DPS Himlija Franca, who was elected a member of the main board of the said party last year. The latest data on financing DPS campaign for the upcoming elections show that Franca backed his party in August donating €2,000.
The owner of“Meso-promet”, Himlija Franca, said that the company “does not conduct such business.” “Our company has been operating for 26 years and we have never been involved in such affairs”, said Franca.
He pointed out that the company started the project a year ago, and that it had not been completed “due to several conditions that could not be fulfilled on time”. He points out that the company “does not receive funds from the government free of charge”, but must provide a bank guarantee “which cannot be done before the elections”.
“We absolutely do not consider dealing with anything that is not in the scope the company’s business”, he concluded.
Another company that may be associated with the ruling party is Niksic-based “Comp-Commerce” owned by Ranko Jovovic, a member of the DPS municipal board in Niksic. The company recently purchased the hotel “Onogost” in Niksic, hereby receiving from the government €70,000, provided that by the end of the year the hotel hires10 persons. This is only the first part of the contract the company concluded with the government and which enable it to receive another €280,000 by the end of 2018 for employment purposes in the said hotel.
The owner of “Comp Commerce” Ranko Jovovic briefly said that that the company “employs people all year round, not just in the pre-election months.”
It is interesting that Jovovic bought the hotel “Onogost” through the loan in the amount of €1 million granted by the Investment and Development Fund (IDF). This is not the only project of the DPS official that was supported by the IDF. At the end of 2015, Jovovic opened a pellet plant on Vucje for which the IDF granted a loan of €160,000.
As for the other four companies that have applied for the government grants, it is important to note that the total amount granted to them is lower than the funds for employment in 2016, which were approved to the companies that are owned by DPS officials. Thus, the rest of the companies received €521,000 to support opening of 77 jobs. In addition to the companies owned by Franca and Jovovic, the grants were awarded to “Milkraft Leche”,”Hemomont”,” Dima Engineering” and “Beckom Co.”
The invitation to companies to apply for grants aimed at promoting employment was issued under the Regulation on encouraging direct investment adopted by the government in January last year. The Regulation determined the way of providing financial support for projects that, among other things, include the creation of new jobs on a permanent basis and contribute to economic and regional development of Montenegro. One of the key criteria for the selection of future investments was their sustainability.
However, last December, before inviting applications for this year’s grants, the government deleted the criterion “sustainability of the investment project” from the Regulation, which in practice may result in short-term employment, which, according to the previous experience, is the perfect tool for pre-election pressure on employees.
After calling elections they remembered that they lack money for employment
At the session of the government of Montenegro where the grants for companies owned by DPS officials were awarded, the Secretariat for Development Projects informed the government that this year’s budget of the program on encouraging direct investment will be insufficient to cover all the projects the financing of which is planned after the elections. The Secretariat proposed that this year’s planned budget for this purpose amounting to €620,000 is to be increased by the additional sum of €211,000, but there is still no information whether the government of Montenegro has granted it.
Lazar Grdinic (MANS)
Tina Popovic
This text is created with the support of the European Union and the U.S. Embassy Podgorica. 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 donors.
