MANS filed 53 complaints with the Agency for Prevention of Corruption against institutions that hid their spending during the election period. Most of the data was hidden by the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Sports and Youth, the Property Administration and the University of Montenegro.
Most of the reported institutions did not publish analytical cards on their spending at all, although they are obliged to do so according to the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns.
Article 38, paragraph 5 of that Law stipulates the obligation of all budget spending units, at the state and local level, to publish analytical cards from all the accounts in their possession, from the day of calling until the day of holding of the elections, as well as one month following the holding of the elections on a seven-day basis.
After MANS filed complaints, 19 institutions published their spending, but in 18 cases the institutions still did not publish information on spending during the election period on their websites in the manner prescribed by the law.
The law stipulates fines for responsible persons in institutions that violate this provision of the law in the amount from €200 to €2,000. Thus, if the Agency for Prevention of Corruption makes decisions in accordance with the law, the heads of institutions that hide data on pre-election spending will pay from €3,600 to €36,000. In addition, in 16 cases, published data on spending do not contain basic information on transactions prescribed by the law.
In some cases, institutions deleted transaction amounts, information on suppliers and other data, although Article 46 paragraph 4 of the Law stipulates that analytical cards must provide accurate and complete information on the following categories at least: budget line, transaction number, recipient/payer, as well as registration number in the case of a legal entity (tax identification number – TIN), amount and date.
However, the Agency for Prevention of Corruption did not provide MANS with any decision, although in 14 cases the legal deadline for submitting information expired.
