In May 2016, on the eve of the entry of representatives of the opposition into the Government of Electoral Trust, the Ministry of Agriculture transferred almost €700,000 to the municipalities and municipal districts for local infrastructure, or half of the estimated budget for this purpose in 2016, i.e. 20 times more than it was spent in the same period last year.
In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture allocated the budget of nearly €1.4 million for the local infrastructure for two programs – water management and rural development.
At the close of May 2016 the Government of Electoral Trust was elected in Montenegro in order to prepare the free parliamentary elections. The agreement reached between the government and the opposition entailed that the position of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development was to be occupied by the opposition representative. However, Petar Ivanovic, the former Minister of Agriculture , a member of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, before leaving the government, in just one month, channeled nearly half of the money, mainly to the municipalities and municipal districts. The municipalities and municipal districts can use these funds for building water supply systems, clearing, grubbing and filling roads, purchasing rainwater tanks, etc.
Comparative data for 2015 show that in May last year, which was a non-election year, the Ministry of Agriculture spent about €35,000 for the local infrastructure, which means that in the same period of the election year a whopping twentyfold increase was recorded.
In May 2016, the municipalities received around €520,000 from the Ministry of Agriculture, but most went to those local governments where the ruling party was in power. Thus, Niksic received €65,000, Podgorica €55,000, Danilovgrad €55,000, Mojkovac €45,000, Savnik €40,000, Cetinje and Petnjica €35,000, each.
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