According to official data, in Vrela Ribnička live quite wealthy supporters of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), who were generous when it came to helping their party during campaign for the last parliamentary elections. This would not come as a surprise if this were not one of the poorest settlements in the outskirts of Podgorica. MANS Investigative Center, which analyzed the financial documentation of the ruling party, found that in just few days, the residents of Vrela Ribnička paid at least € 30,000 to DPS.
Cracked asphalt, lack of sidewalks, worn-out street lighting, drained sewage and urban landfill make the living conditions for residents of Vrela Ribnička very difficult. That is why the question arises as to how some residents of that settlement are willing to donate up to € 2000 to DPS, according to official records of that party.
The data MANS Investigative Center managed to obtain show that individual donations from citizens tapping into DPS cash register from this settlement did not amount to less than € 500, while some families paid up to € 2,000 to help Đukanović’s party.
Overall, the residents of Vrela who decided to help DPS ahead of the last parliamentary elections did this by paying the sum of € 500, € 1,000 and € 2,000, i.e., the maximum amount that a natural person can pay during the election campaign. What is particularly interesting is the fact that the payments came one after the other, that is, residents of the same streets made payments the same day, and thus they were recorded in DPS’s bank account.
According to available data, all residents of Vrela who made payments in cash did so at the counter of Societe General Bank in Moskovska Street in Podgorica, and all who donated through the bank accounts had their accounts in Prva Banka.
Official donation reports show that DPS gathered total of € 680,000 at the state level for the parliamentary elections, while all other parties and election lists collected just below € 60,000. Although the pre-election campaign lasted almost four months, DPS collected a total sum in just over thirty days. DPS began to receive payments on August 18 and it lasted until September 26. Interestingly, after that date, no payments were received by DPS, although there were more than two weeks left until October elections.
A detailed analysis of donations to DPS shows that tens of thousands of Euros were paid on certain days, but there were also days when payments came from only one municipality. Thus, on August 31, only payments from Bijelo Polje were recorded in the total amount of € 27,000, while on September 13, only citizens of Podgorica made payments to Đukanović’s party.
When it comes to donations from Podgorica, DPS collected over € 390,000 in just three weeks, and according to data available so far, what is interesting is that cash payments were made solely and exclusively at the counter of Societe General Bank’s central office in Moskovska Street. Although this bank has as many as seven business units, only the bank’s central office was used for cash payments to DPS account.
Such dynamics and organizing of donation payments of natural persons per municipalities open an enormous space for doubt that it is not about voluntary, individual payments of citizens who support DPS, but about a well-organized mechanism for inserting money from the so-called “black funds” into the official flows of financing of election campaigns.
We believe that this example alone represents a reason and motivation for competent institutions to perform detailed control over the sources of donations of candidates and political parties in the light of the upcoming presidential and local elections in order to ensure full transparency of the financing of election campaigns. Only this can prevent the money of criminal groups from having any influence on the outcome of elections in Montenegro.
August 19 – VIP day at the bank’s office in Moskovska Street
Officials of the Societe General Bank office in Moskovska Street had the opportunity to meet with a large number of senior DPS officials, because 22 of them decided on that very day to “reward” the party.
On this occasion, a total of € 22,900 was paid, and the following persons “donated” money to the party: Milutin Simović, Filip Vuković, Melvudin Nuhodžić, Milorad Vuletić. Predrag Sekulić, Vuk Roćen, Šefkija Murić, Halil Duković, Nikola Gegaj, Mirsad Mulić, Husnija Sabović, Branko Čavor, Zoran Jelić, Veljko Zarubica, Radivoje Nikčević, Željko Aprcović, Branka Tanasijević, Žana Filipović, Maida Bešlić, Marta Šćepanović, Marija Ćatović and Saša Pesić. According to DPS bank account data, all these donations were in cash.
Authors:
Dejan Milovac
Lazar Grdinić
