As an authorized representative of Vanja Ćalović Marković, I am submitting the reaction to APC’s statement regarding the verdict of the Administrative Court of Montenegro.
APC CLEARLY ANNOUNCED THAT, INSTEAD OF IMPLEMENTING LAWS AND JUDICIAL VERDICTS, IT WILL CONTINUE TO CARRY PUT POLITICAL TASKS
Scandalous announcement by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption that it will not comply with the verdict of the Administrative Court and that will adopt another decision that Vanja Ćalović Marković was in conflict of interest, further demonstrates the amount of political influence on the Agency and its Director. Instead for the Agency to accept the responsibility and, due to a conscious violation of the law the Director resigns or otherwise be dismissed, the Agency’s announcement attempts to show that a “minor” formal omission was made in the making of an illegal decision because Vanja Ćalović Marković was “only” not allowed to participate in the proceedings and defends herself against untrue allegations of the Director of the Agency.
Therefore, this announcement of the Agency shows not only that this institution and its Director are under full political control, but they also do not even have minimum professional capacity and knowledge to perform the tasks entrusted by the law.
Let me remind that it is precisely such “formal omissions” of denial of rights to defend against false and groundless charges that has always been a feature of the system in which the rule of law is not established, and there are also no rules in the work of corrupt officials who instead of implementing the law, carry out illegal political tasks.
However, for the sake of the public, I point out that the Administrative Court did not establish “only” this formal omission, but it pointed out clearly and unequivocally in the rationale of the verdict that Vanja Ćalović Marković did not realize the salary increase under the contract that MANS concluded with the EU Delegation, although the Agency’s Director claimed otherwise.
The Administrative Court has clearly established that the contract between MANS and the EU Delegation and its obligations do not indicate at all the amount of earnings of Vanja Ćalović Marković, instead, it prescribes the rights and obligations of the parties during implementation of the election process for 2016.
Also, the Administrative Court clearly and unequivocally stated in the rationale of the verdict that Vanja Ćalović Marković did not participate in the decision-making on the complaints submitted by NGO MANS, since there was no such thing on the agenda of the session of the Agency Council, nor did Vanja Ćalović Marković ever attend the item on the agenda the Agency referred to. And most importantly, the Administrative Court confirmed the allegation of Vanja Ćalović Marković that it was not at all in the competence of the Council, although the Director of the Agency claimed the opposite of everything stated.
Therefore, in addition to the fact that the Court found that Vanja Ćalović Marković was not allowed to take part in the proceedings and defend herself from allegations of the Director of the Agency, the Administrative Court found that every allegation of the Director of the Agency on which the Agency based the decision was untrue and not in line with the case files. It is therefore obvious that the allegations from the Agency’s statement, that the Administrative Court did not dispute the allegations concerning the conflict of interest, are untrue.
That is why the announcement of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption that it will again adopt identical decision represents a clear message that the Director of the Agency does not respect even the final court verdicts and that illegal political tasks are the only one he knows to carry out.
I am informing you that today I handed over to the Basic Court in Podgorica the decision of the Administrative Court revoking the decision of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption which was the basis for the dismissal of Vanja Ćalović Marković from the position of a member of the Council. I asked the Basic Court again to adopt an interim measure that would restore Vanja Ćalović Marković to the position of a member of the Council because the Administrative Court also found that the decision that served the Parliament to urgently dismiss her only because she uncovered illegalities in financing of the ruling political party was illegal.
Veselin Radulović, lawyer from Podgorica
