In May this year, ahead of the entry of the opposition controllers into the government of electoral trust, the Ministry of Agriculture “pumped” nearly €700,000 to municipalities and local communities, for local infrastructure. This sum represents half of this year’s envisaged budget for that purpose, which is 20 times more than the sum spent in the same period last year.
This is shown in the official data from the State Treasury, which have been analyzed by MANS Investigation Center and “Dan”.
The budget of the Ministry of Agriculture for this year projected expenses of nearly €1.4 million, on the basis of expenditures for local infrastructure. This item of the budget is divided into two programs – water management and rural development . Official documents reveal that the former minister Petar Ivanovic, before stepping down in May, rerouted almost half of that money, mostly to municipalities and local communities, as well as to primary schools.
The money that was “pumped” just before the opposition controllers entered the government of electoral trust in the pre-election period, municipalities and local communities can use for building water supply systems, road construction and rehabilitation, acquiring of rainwater tanks and the like. It is a known mechanism for political promotion in the field and gaining political advantage in favor of the ruling party.
At the same time, comparative data from the State Treasury for 2015 show that in May last year, which was a non-election year, the Ministry of Agriculture spent around €35,000 for local infrastructure, which means that in the same period this election year the expenditure increased the whopping 20 times.
In May this year, municipalities received around €520,000 from the Ministry of Agriculture, most of which went to those local governments where the ruling party pulls all the strings. Thus, Niksic received €65,000, Podgorica €55,000 (Town Municipality of Golubovci €9,000), Danilovgrad €55,000, Mojkovac €45,000, Savnik €40,000, Cetinje and Petnjica €35,000 each.
Zabljak received €33,500, Rozaje €30,000, Pljevlja and Pluzine €25,000 each, Andrijevica and Bijelo Polje €20,000 each, Plav and Bar €10,000 each, Tivat €5,000 and Berane, in which the ruling party is not in power got €2,000.
Funds of the Ministry of Agriculture went to local communities, as well. Thus Krusevice and Prijevor in Herceg Novi received €25,000. Another two local communities in Herceg Novi, Kumbor and Baosici, received money from the Ministry – €5,000 each, while the local community Kaludra in Berane got the sum of €10,000.
Local community Mrtvo Duboko from Kolasin received €4,000 in May, which is as much as local community Kalace in Rozaje received from the Ministry headed by Petar Ivanovic. In addition, around “Vodovod i kanalizacija” (Waterworks and Sewerage) got around €55,000, but MANS Investigation Center does not have precise information whether this public enterprise is from Podgorica or some other municipality.
It is interesting that in May this year the money from the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture went to some primary schools as well, on the grounds of expenditures for local infrastructure. Those schools received several thousand each.
Furthermore, the money from the state budget also went to a cultural organization from Piperi. Official data show that the amount in question is €1,000, which is unquestionably non-earmarked spending, as funds from a specific budget item can only be used for the specified purposes.
The elections in Montenegro, by the decision of the president, were called on 12 July and will be held on 16 October.
Authors:
Marko Vesovic
Ines Mrdovic
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 European Union.
Table shows a huge leap in payments by the Ministry of Agriculture in May this year compared with May last year
Part of last year’s money being spent in the election year?
The budget of the Ministry of Agriculture last year envisaged expenditures on local infrastructure of €1.2 million. However, it is indicative that just before the end of last year, the Ministry rerouted half a million to municipalities and local communities.
In practice, this means that the municipalities could present those funds in the budgets for 2016 “transferred assets” from the previous year, and then use them for carrying out works in the election year.
This leads to the suspicion that the money from the state budget was routed in the past, so that it would not coincide with the period of the election campaign, when spending of the budget is monitored intensively.
