Today, NGO MANS submitted to the Special State Prosecutor and the Agency for Prevention of Corruption of Montenegro complete documentation regarding unknown origin of the property of Dragan Kovacevic, Director of the Real Estate Administration of Montenegro.
Comparison of data within analysis of income and property showed that Dragan Kovacevic, along with his family members, had acquired valuable real estate, cars and securities whose value does not correspond to family income stated in property records over the years. There is a clear question mark over the amount of at least 100,000 Euros which family Kovacevic had spent and whose origin cannot be explained.
Dragan Kovacevic has been a longtime head of cadastre, and NGO MANS only has filed several criminal charges against him throughout the years for abuse of power and violation of regulations from the Law on State Surveying and Cadastre. Symptomatically, all those charges are either in some of the drawers in the Prosecutor’s Office or dismissed.
MANS is still waiting for competent authorities to take concrete steps in the case of suspicious property of Branko Vujovic as well, for which complete documentation was also submitted to the Agency.
Let us remind, MANS Investigation Center revealed that the family of Branko Vujovic owns real estate and cars they could not have afforded, according to official data. Now, when MANS has once again made information on property of the family of a high official public, we urge state institutions to finally take action and act in accordance with their competencies.
For years, MANS has been drawing attention to the fact that alarmingly large number of public officials own property which, having in mind Montenegrin reality, could have hardly been acquired legally, which would have to be covered by a special legal solution and criminalization of “illicit enrichment”. However, Prosecutor’s Office still does not investigate the property of many public officials, while periodically we learn that famous financial investigations still give no concrete and satisfactory results. Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) also does not show will or motive to investigate the property of public officials and deals solely with form instead of essence.
Unfortunately, by not acting accordingly in this and similar cases, competent state institutions send a message that conflict of interest and corruption are still worthy in Montenegro, as well as that public officials can enrich themselves with impunity at the expense of public interest.
For the above mentioned reasons, MANS urges the Special State Prosecutor and APC to act responsibly in the case of Dragan Kovacevic and take measures within their competencies.
