Latest statement by the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) declaring that the request to initiate proceedings against Montenegro’s President Milo Đukanović has been rejected, once again shows that this institution tries to cover up corruption and violation of laws by top public officials at all costs.
Of course, we did not have expectations and illusion that the director of APC, Sreten Radonjić, would even think to jeopardize any interest of Đukanović and begin to work in accordance with the law in case of report against Đukanović. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see with how much promptness and humbleness Sreten Radonjić is performing his role as the protector of corruption of the ruling party’s top officials.
It is astounding to see that there is no limit to which APC and its director are willing to publicly humiliate and compromise themselves only to prove Đukanović that he can count on them, regardless of how many times and in what way he violated the law. The public announcement that paying other people’s – Đukanović’s bills in the amount of €17,000 is not a gift – is a sort of a scandal and offends common sense of every citizen of Montenegro.
We would like to repeat to the public that the request for initiation of the proceedings does not charge Đukanović with the fact that he owns a payment card of Atlas Bank, but that the amount of almost €17,000 that Đukanović spent using the card was settled by the bank and that Đukanović did not report that income in his report to the Agency. Perhaps due to the lifestyle and appetites of the highest public officials, including Milo Đukanović and Sreten Radonjić, they do not consider € 17 thousand as a gift, but it is a fact that it is a service defined by the law as a gift.
It is especially interesting in what way APC has established that it is not about the favour did to Đukanović in connection with performing of the public office, since the procedure for determining any fact, including that one, was not carried out. It is obvious that APC and its director could not even dare to think to ask Đukanović for an explanation and check why someone would pay his bills. Instead, they publicly demonstrated the condescension and loyalty to Đukanović, not even trying to formally implement the proceedings prescribed by the law.
With this practice, the Agency for Prevention of Corruption shows that institutions for prevention and suppression of corruption are trapped by corrupt officials and that they are the biggest impediment to the development of Montenegrin society.
Dejan Milovac
Director of Investigative Centre,MANS
