Competent authorities should urgently charge Vektra Jakić’s debts for taxes and concessions, instead of allowing its controversial owner, Dragan Brković, to violate the laws of Montenegro without any liability for damage to the state budget.
Having in mind that the public finances of the country are sinking deeper and that the government is enormously indebted in order to meet its regular obligations, it is very worrying that the Tax Administration is still not doing anything to collect the debt of the Plevlja-based company of nearly ten million Euros.
Moreover, the owner of “Vektra Jakić” is allowed to speak in the highest legislative house about the concession contract and the reasons why he does not pay the obligation to the state, and demonstrate the arrogance of the privileged businessman, who has been receiving preferential treatment for years.
This was precisely what was witnessed yesterday by the entire Montenegrin public when, in a special session of the Committee on Economy and Agriculture, the Parliament of Montenegro discussed the reduction of debts of the Pljevlja-based company, which showed the weakness of state institutions.
This is proved by the fact that the owner of “Vektra Jakić” does not respect the concession agreement on the exploitation of forests, that the conditions for its termination have been met a long time ago and that the budget is directly damaged by non-paying of taxes and concession fees.
Forest wealth is the wealth of all citizens and the concession fee for its use should be in a much larger amount than it is now. Namely, the country’s concession policy should have been redefined long time ago, given that state receives “crumbs” from concessions.
The case of “Vektra Jakić” is one of the examples of such devastating policy, in which a privileged businessman obtained a valuable company for small money and with whom concession contract was signed for an unjustifiably long period of 30 years.
However, not only that he failed to respect the contract, but he also pushed the company into huge losses, so at the end of 2017, they amounted to the unreal €44 million. However, all this did not stop the Government to support it in the meantime with a loan from the Abu Dhabi Fund, whose return is guaranteed by the very Government, so the price of these decisions could be paid by all taxpayers.
Finally, it should be pointed out that the case of “Vektre Jakić” shows that there are enough elements to include the State Prosecutor’s Office in the most urgent way, in order to examine the total operations of the Pljevlja-based company and its export of wood products, as well as violation of contractual provisions and other obligations.
MANS Public Finance Programme
Coordinator Ines Mrdović
