For five years, the state-owned company Montenegro Bonus has been hiding the cost of power supply of the Aluminium Plant Podgorica (KAP) because this information was declared secret. MANS’s efforts to obtain information about the total debt for the company Uniprom KAP, owned by the businessman Veselin Pejović, to Montenegro Bonus, last just as long.
Data on business of the state-owned company with KAP, after it was taken over by Uniprom, were declared secret because of the obvious abuse of the Law on Classified Information, which state institutions and companies interpret completely arbitrarily when they need to hide certain type of data from the public.
In this particular case, the public is still deprived of information at what price Montenegro Bonus was selling electricity to KAP during the bankruptcy period, but also after it was taken over by the businessman Veselin Pejović from Nikšić. This company refused to provide MANS with the information on the amount of Pejović’s electricity debt by declaring it secret, which is a complete nonsense because it is the state-owned company whose business must be public.
The request for information on the conditions under which KAP was supplied with electricity was rejected on the grounds that “after the conducted harm test, it was determined that there is still a general interest for KAP to continue business during bankruptcy for the continuity of production, better protection and preservation of assets, deterioration and reduction of its value, achieving economic goals, securing a better market position of KAP in bankruptcy.” In addition to the decision of Montenegro Bonus, it is added that “enabling access to information could seriously harm the economic interests of Montenegro”.
When it comes to KAP’s debt for electricity to Montenegro Bonus, MANS first received an answer that there was no consent from Uniprom as the owner of the factory to publish that information, while later the information on debt was marked as “confidential”.
There is no doubt that there is an undeniable public interest to have full information on how Montenegro Bonus operates as a state company. Last year, this company generated revenue of over €12 million, while its claims for years have been at the level of over 20 million, which are the amounts that draw public attention.
Such interpretation of the Law on Classified Information is pretty much widespread among state institutions, and the Government has just prepared amendments to the Law which will practically incorporate into legal norms a provision that will enable institutions to legally hide data at their sole discretion.
Namely, the amendments to the law stipulate that an information may be classified as secret if it is for the purpose of “performing activities of a state authority”, which is a definition that opens the door for every possible abuse and hiding information “if necessary”.
If these amendments are adopted, this will mean a practical suspension of any possibility of civilian control over the work of state institutions, and there is no doubt that they are proposed to hide, in the first place, the evidence of corruption obtained up to now by NGOs and media precisely by using the free access to information.
Dejan Milovac
Director of the Investigative Centre
MANS
Uskoković signed decision by which business with KAP became secret
Decision of Montenegro Bonus from 2013 on confidentiality of all data and documentation resulting from the conclusion of Business Cooperation Agreement between Montenegrin Bonus and KAP in bankruptcy was passed by the Board of Directors of the company, led by Darko Uskoković, former Minister of Economy and a member of the Tender Commission for Privatization of KAP. Also, during his mandate, Telekom’s privatization took place (Uskoković is one of the signatories of the contract on sale of shares), which, due to suspicion of corruption, is being processed by the State Prosecutor’s Office.
