Despite the legal obligation to make its spending in the pre-election period public, during June and July alone, the Ministry of Sports covered as many as 136 transactions worth close to € 100 thousand. Data of the MANS Investigative Centre show that the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Culture used a similar practice.
The Law on Financing of Political Entities binds all budget users to make their spending during the election campaign public, as well as to publish analytical cards on their website in order to avoid suspicions that the state funds are being abused for political purposes.
When it comes to the Ministry of Sports headed by the Minister Nikola Janović, the analysis of MANS showed that this institution left out several payments on its analytical cards, with a total value of nearly one hundred thousand Euros.
This is confirmed by the official data of the Ministry of Finance obtained by MANS, which show that the Ministry of Sports had as many as 136 individual transactions in the period from the beginning of the election campaign, which it did not show in its analytical cards. All these payments were made in just three days, on June 30, July 1 and July 30, from the budget line “other transfers to natural persons”. It is not possible to determine from the data of the Ministry of Finance which natural persons were paid the fees that the Ministry of Sports tried to hide in the pre-election period.
Payments of the Ministry of Sports that are not shown in the analytical card (data from the Ministry of Finance)
MANS noted a similar practice with the Ministry of Culture, headed by the Minister Aleksandar Bogdanović, which also covered up its pre-election spending, i.e. in this particular case, individual payments to natural persons. The analysis of their finances showed that this institution in its analytical cards concealed payments from the budget line “other fees”, in the amount of around € 15 thousand. Namely, about 20 transactions were paid into the bank accounts of natural persons. All these payments were made on August 10. On the same day, the Ministry paid additional € 20 thousand from the budget line “project development” through several transactions, but even that was not registered in the official analytical cards.
When it comes to payments to natural persons, MANS’ data show that during July, the Ministry of Economy also displayed incorrect data on its analytical cards. Thus, on July 27, about 40 transactions were conducted, which are not in the official data of this ministry, and they refer to the so-called other fees, with the corresponding taxes and contributions.
By withholding data on actual spending, these institutions violated the Law on Financing of Political Entities, and created additional space for suspicion that in these cases it is about abuse of state funds for election purposes. In addition to making analytical cards public, state institutions are required to submit them to the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, which is responsible for overseeing the entire election process involving state institutions, including the validity of the data they publish.
Analytical cards presented by the ministries in this way do not give an accurate picture of the pre-election spending and prevent real control of compliance with the law. According to the official data of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption, since the calling of the elections, this institution has not controlled the application of the Law in the mentioned ministries.
Dejan Milovac
Payments for temporary employment contracts also hidden before the elections
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Administration for Inspection Affairs also presented inaccurate data on their spending in their analytical cards. In both institutions, by comparing their data with the official data of the Ministry of Finance, transactions based on temporary employment contracts were recorded. The Administration for Inspection Supervision hid about 20 transactions which confirm that in the pre-election period it made payments on the basis of temporary employment contracts, while the Agency had 15 such payments.
