During a three-month pre-election period, the Ministry of Sustainable Development spent approximately €4.5 million for constructing local infrastructure and buildings, which is 58 percent more than it was allocated for this purpose in three and a half months preceding calling the October parliamentary elections, i.e. in April, May, June and the first part of July 2016.
This is shown in the official documentation analyzed by MANS Investigation Centre and the Daily Dan.
Budget for construction of local infrastructure and buildings is often used in election cycles for exercising political influence and gaining advantage in the field.
According to the statement of accounts of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, dated on 12 July 2016, when the parliamentary elections were called, until the end of July, the government’s department for local infrastructure and buildings spent approximately €600,000, and in August it set aside €1.6 million, €1.8 million in September, and until 16 October, when elections were held, an additional sum of €460,000 was allocated. Immediately after the completion of the parliamentary elections, i.e. until the end of October, the additional amount of €1.6 million was spent.
At the same time, the official data of the Ministry of Finance show that the total budget of the Ministry of Sustainable Development for this purpose in the three and a half months preceding the announcing the parliamentary elections amounted to €2.6 million. Thus, in April 2016 the sum of €586,000 was spent, in May €570,000, in June €730,000 thousand, and in the first part of July – until 12 July – another €737,000.
MANS Investigation Centre has no information on the amount the Ministry spent for the construction of the local infrastructure and facilities in the first three months of 2016, because the Ministry of Finance did not submit the documentation in the required form from which the exact spending during this period could be determined.
The main works on infrastructure which were carried out during the election period were construction or reconstruction of local roads, town squares and streets, construction of riverwalks, as well as construction of buildings.
The capital budget for the local infrastructure and construction works is implemented by the Public Works Directorate, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Sustainable Development, headed by the minister Branimir Gvozdenovic who was a prominent official of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists during the election period.
The new prime minister Dusko Markovic did not keep Gvozdenovic in the government, who, in the meantime, was elected Vice President of the Parliament of Montenegro. Pavle Radulovic, a former manager of the Capital Podgorica, is currently the head of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development spent the most during the election period
Million for investment coating of roads
According to the data from the Directorate for Transport, majority of the applications for payments on the basis of works done on the investment coating of roads was submitted in July 2016, as a month when the election campaign began, and in the two previous months when the announcement of parliamentary elections was expected. In the first four months of 2016, there were no such payment requests.
So in May 2016 the sum of €181,000 was officially spent for roads in Niksic, a month later, €783,000 for roads in Podgorica, and in July around a million. From the figure spent in July, some €358,000 thousand were allocated for roads in the municipality of Berane, €353,000 in Pljevlja, €179,000 in Kotor, €108,000 in Podgorica, and €28,000 in Niksic.
The Directorate for Transport, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport, is responsible for the implementation of the capital budget for the construction and reconstruction of regional roads and highways. Furthermore, the Directorate is funding investment coating of roads, which is a project that is being implemented in the so-called five sections which are territorially defined, i.e. in Podgorica, Niksic, Pljevlja, Berane and Kotor.
Authors:
Ines Mrdovic
Marko Vesovic
This text is created with the support of the European Union and the US 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.
