Over € 18,000 were paid by 23 employees of the Public Utility Company “Čistoća” from Podgorica, in order to help the election campaign of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) in the eve of the last parliamentary elections in 2016.
The documentation obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre raises additional suspicions about the existence of an organized scheme for inserting cash through fictitious donations from individuals. Through donations from individuals, DPS has collected close to € 700,000 for the last parliamentary elections alone.
The scheme discovered by MANS involved the payment of cash in only one branch of the same bank, on the same day and in almost identical amounts. According to DPS’ account statement, payments of 21 employees of Podgorica’s “Čistoća” were made on August 26, 2016, in a branch of the Societe Generale bank (now Podgorička banka), while only two employees donated money a few days later.
DPS’ account statement
Although this bank has as many as seven branches, according to available data, only one was used to pay cash to DPS’ account, exactly the one where the bank’s management is located – in Moskovska Street.
Workers of “Čistoća” paid “donations” to the ruling DPS in the amounts between 300 to 1000 Euros, while the average salary in that public utility company during 2016 election was 516 Euros.
DPS’ account statement
“Čistoća” is headed by Andrija Čađenović, a member of the Main Board of DPS, who recently donated DPS campaign for the postponed elections in Tivat. The president of the Board of Directors of that company is Stanislava Beba Martinović who, as the head of the Tax Administration of the Regional unit Podgorica, is a suspect in the tax evasion scandals “Klap” and “Vardar”, while one of the board members is Isen Gaši, also from DPS.
Lazar Grdinić
MANS Investigative Centre
Donations for Đukanović’s 2018 campaign as well
Employees of “Čistoća” gave money to the party for the campaign for presidential and local elections in 2018. Thus, six employees of Čistoća, former director Daca Popović and retired member of the Board of Directors Suljo Alivodić, but also regular donors from that company – Vojin Katnić, Slobodanka Čabarkapa, Senada Mulešković and Žana Raičević, donated a total of € 2,600 for Milo Đukanović’s campaign that year.
Amendments to the law encourage electoral corruption
In April this year, amendments to the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns were adopted, and in addition to now allowing the payment of social welfare from the budget reserve during the election campaign, key changes relate to the amount of campaign donations allowed by the natural and legal persons. Namely, instead of the previous € 2,000, citizens can donate as much as € 5,000 to parties for the needs of the election campaign, and companies as much as € 20,000, which is twice as much as compared to previously allowed € 10,000.
Such legal solution will facilitate entering of cash into the official budgets for the campaign, and open additional suspicions that money of unknown origin or from the so-called black funds, which afterwards, through volunteers in the form of party officials, employees of state institutions and others, are paid into the party’s account.
