Ministry of Finance refuses to announce data on payments from the budget reserve
In four months (December 2017, February, March and April 2018), the Ministry of Finance paid around €6.3 million from the budget reserve to legal entities, but they are hiding who received up to 70% or €4.8 million of that money.
For such non-transparent work, the Ministry is referring to the Law on Free Access to Information (FAI), which was amended last year, so most of the payments are marked by a degree of secrecy “internal”, which prevents the public from knowing in what way millions of taxpayers are spent.
Snežana Bajčeta, Media Coordinator from the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS), explains that international experts, who analyzed the Montenegrin Law on FAI, assessed that the current legal solution is very problematic and that a series of general and inaccurate exclusions, thanks to which the spending of money from the budget reserve is hidden from the public, are completely unacceptable.
“Already in the first article of the Law on Free Access to Information, which the Ministry referred to, there are serious limitations when it comes to the right to seek information. The first paragraph clearly states that the right to access is determined by this Law. However, in the second paragraph of the same article it is stated that this Law does not apply to certain information, but other norms. This opened a huge space for the authorities to avoid obligation to act under this Law. This is contrary to all international standards to which Montenegro is bound to adhere, but also to constitutional provisions on access to information, and it is an example of a serious violation of the fundamental right of the public to know.”
Deciding on requests for FAI submitted by MANS, in connection with payments from the budget reserve for December 2017, the department of finance led by Darko Radunović, reveals that it is a figure €3,567,410. Data on payments of €1,131,144 million is shown, while other payments are hidden, marked with degree of secrecy “internal”.
“…This authority has determined that part of the information, according to the decision of the Government, is marked by the degree of secrecy “internal”, it is stated in the decision of the Ministry of Finance.
MANS received the same response for February, when €92,000 was paid, and the secret was to which legal entities half of this amount was paid.
In March, more than €2.3 million was paid out of the budget reserves, and the Ministry provided MANS only with information on payments in the amount of slightly more than 90 thousand.
Bajčeta points out that in the period of election campaigns, when these funds from the budget reserve are paid, it is especially important that the public has an unobstructed insight into the spending of public money.
“MANS has repeatedly pointed to various misuse of public funds for political purposes, which would make public control in the pre-election period even greater than usual. However, on the contrary, the practice shows that last year’s amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information only further limited the free access to information, which was precisely the key legal mechanism for detecting corruption. If we take into account already proven corrupt practices, it is quite reasonable to assume that now, in the secrecy provided by the existing law, corruption can only be further developed,” Bajčeta concludes.
At the end of April, the budget reserve was “shorter” by €341,000, and the Ministry disclosed who received a payment of €291,040.
Who received the money
In December 2017, when 3.56 million was paid from the budget reserves, the Ministry allocated €240,000 to the National Parks, €20,000 to the Amateur Radio Union, €300,000 to the Olympic Federation, over €360,000 for Fund for Solidarity Housing … Which legal entities received €2.43 million is a secret.
In February, there were only two payments worth € 92,000 – the first one is a secret, and the other of 52,000 was allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture.
In March, 2.33 million from the budget reserves were paid to legal entities, of which 11,000 to the Union of the Associations of Battlemen, €66,500 as solidarity funds from the Government, while lawyer Sandra Bulatović received €12,500. All other payments are marked by the degree of secrecy “internal”.
In April there were two payments worth €341,000, one of which was secret, and the other – €291,040 was paid to the company Veletex.
Tina Popović
Text was published in Independent Daily Vijesti on July 8, 2018
