Since the beginning of the election campaign, the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) has not yet responded to any of the complaints filed by MANS, which related to the spending of budget funds and political advertising in the media.
So far, MANS has filed 85 complaints against state institutions that violated the legal obligation to publish analytical cards on their spending during the election campaign, but also reagarding several media outlets that did not submit price lists for publishing ads with political content on time. For over 60 of these complaints, the legal deadline for APC to make a final decision has already expired, and it still has not done that.
Institutions that did not publish complete data on their spending on time include the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Education, the Tax Administration, the Forest Administration, the Property Administration and other institutions.
Publishing of analytical cards on the spending of state money was introduced as a special legal obligation to provide the full publicness during the pre-election period due to countless cases of abuse of state funds for political purposes. Precisely because of that, hiding this information, as well as APC’s failure to act on these complaints, creates a vast space for suspicion of pre-election abuse of state funds.
The situation is similar with the complaints filed by MANS due to the media that were late with submitting of the price list, where we already have a situation where such media, contrary to the law and thanks to non-acting of APC, already advertise certain political parties. All legal deadlines for acting upon these complaints have expired, but APC still does not have a final decision. In addition, although the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns is more than clear, APC has still not removed the disputed price lists from its website.
This behaviour of APC three weeks before the elections completely discredits civil control of the legality of the election process and represents a continuation of the practice that we could see while this institution was managed by Sreten Radonjić.
MANS once again urges APC to respect the law and make decisions on complaints against state institutions that hide data on the spending of state funds in the pre-election period without delay.
MANS
