The Agency for Prevention of Corruption declared the bank account statements of political parties business secret, and thus joined the efforts of other institutions to completely prevent the control of spending of millions of Euros of taxpayer money in Montenegro, which are poured every year into the pockets of Montenegro’s political parties.
At the end of April, MANS requested from the Agency for Prevention of Corruption the copies of all statements of the bank accounts opened by presidential candidates for financing of their campaigns. MANS also requested the bank account statements of the parties that participated in the parliamentary elections in 2016.
The Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) has remained the only institution in possession of the bank account statements of political parties, after the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information freed the parties form obligation to provide detailed information on their finances to the public.
APC confirmed in its reply to MANS that it has the information we asked, but we are denied access because they consider it banking. i.e. business secret.
This interpretation of the Law on Free Access to Information by APC can be a very dangerous precedent for the overall transparency of the spending of public funds. According to APC’s logic, the bank account statements of any ministry or public institution, as well as of all those legal entities that are dominantly financed from public funds, could also be declared secret
This is contrary to the opinion of the European Commission given in the latest Progress Report on Montenegro. It states that public institutions must urgently improve the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information, especially in areas where there is a risk of corruption
MANS managed to uncover a scheme designed by DPS to collect donations for its campaign for the 2016 parliamentary elections exactly on the basis of bank account statements. Only and exclusively on the basis of MANS’ investigation, the State Prosecution has for the first time ever launched an investigation related to donations of political parties.
By closing of APC as a possible source of this kind of information, the complete public control of funding of political parties is futile and limited to checks carried out by state institutions, primarily APC and the State Audit Institution in which DPS infiltrated its staff long time ago.
We believe that only those political entities whose funding is problematic, and whose checking can result in evidence of political corruption, benefit from this practice.
MANS will appeal against the decision of APC and request that such decision be annulled and the public provided with full insight into how political parties spend the money of Montenegrin taxpayers.
Dejan Milovac
Director of Investigative Centre
MANS
