Each political party financed by citizens’ money is obliged to respect the Law on Free Access to Information and publish financial documentation. The decision of a party not to cooperate cannot suspend the law, or prevent MANS from doing its work and analyzing the costs of election campaigns.
Thus, NOVA, which manages DF’s finances, as well as any other parliamentary party, has a legal obligation to publish data on how it spends hundreds of thousands of Euros of citizens received from the budget.
Instead of publishing information on its finances, since November 2016, NOVA has persistently violated the law and refused to publish the documentation. Since MANS informed them, like all other parties, that the survey will be published, this party finally sent us part of the documentation we have requested for 18 months, after the expiration of all deadlines for submitting of data.
MANS posted all information immediately on the website so that citizens could know in what way all political entities finance election campaigns.
If they have nothing to hide, it is in the interest of each party to show the citizens in what way they spend their money. The leaders of NOVA were first to call on their political opponents for such things, but when it comes to their finances, they have different standards.
It is especially obvious that NOVA very selectively publishes financial documents, and continues to hide data on spending of 237 thousand Euros.
Their harsh and nervous statements show that they are afraid of publicly publishing their finances. This does not surprise us, because it can be seen at first glance that NOVA did not declare all the costs it had, and that the invoices it published do not meet even the basic standards. For example, according to official data of that party, DF did not spend a single dime for the internet campaign for the parliamentary elections, although all citizens know that it was of unprecedented intensity.
In the following period, MANS will closely examine the contents of documentation provided by all parties, regardless of their pressures and brutal manipulations. We are accustomed to investigating under the pressure of criminals and corrupt politicians, thus, no one will stop us from introducing the public to all law violations we are able to discover this time as well.
Danilo Kalezić
Coordinator of the Parliamentary Programme
