During June this year, the Government spent 14 times more money from the budget reserve than in the same month last year, while part of the data on spending for July and August was declared a state secret, thus, their amount is unknown to the public. The Government has previously claimed that they have increased the planned funds in the budget reserve due to the epidemic, although at the end of last year, before the virus appeared in Montenegro, they proposed a three times larger budget than in 2019.
During June this year, when the elections were called, the Government distributed over € 18 million from the budget reserve, while in the same month last year, € 1.3 million was spent from that budget item.
€16.9 million was allocated in May, € 3.1 million in April, about € 100 thousand in March, € 720 thousand in February, and € 1.9 million in January. In the first half of 2019, monthly spending from the reserve budget did not exceed € 1.9 million. It was similar in the comparative period of 2018 as well, except in May, the month when local elections were held in several municipalities, when spending exceeded € 4 million.
The amending budget envisaged spending of € 133 million from the budget reserve this year. The government explained that the budget reserve was increased in order to respond to problems caused by the COVID pandemic. However, according to the original budget for this year, proposed by the government in 2019, before the outbreak of the epidemic in Montenegro, budget reserves are planned at the level of € 88.5 million.
The budget for 2019 provided € 20 million for the budget reserve, while the amending budget adopted that year increased that amount by an additional five million. During 2018 election year, the amending budget increased the amount of the budget reserve from around € 12.5 million to € 29 million.
It is unknown how much money from the budget reserve was allocated in July and August, because the Ministry of Finance declared three transactions a state secret, and deleted their amount, data on suppliers to whom funds were paid, basis for payment, and even the source of funds.
In the first half of the year, the Ministry declared five more transactions secret, and based on their statistics on budget implementation, we determined that the value of those transactions was € 3.2 million. Namely, in February, € 700 thousand was spent from budget reserves, and all three transactions from that month were declared secret. € 3.1 million was disbursed in April, while four transactions worth a total of € 2.4 million were hidden. In May, as much as € 16.9 million was disbursed, while one transaction of around € 100 thousand was hidden. In January, € 1.9 million were disbursed from the budget reserve, but the Ministry of Finance is persistently hiding data on all transactions in that month.
The Government has regulated in a special rulebook that the budget reserve can be used to help natural and legal persons. Assistance to natural persons for treatment, education and improvement of the financial situation is decided by a Commission composed of ministers in the Government or, exceptionally, the Government itself. The criteria for making decisions on granting of assistance are not publicly available.
According to the Law on Budget of Montenegro, funds from the budget reserve are used for the payment of expenditures that were not planned in the budget in a sufficient amount, or that could not have been foreseen.
MANS previously announced that one day after the last presidential elections, € 240 thousand of aid had been paid from the budget reserve for various types of financial assistance, mainly to improve financial situation of natural persons. This organization also revealed that a month before the local elections in Podgorica and several other municipalities, the Ministry of Finance had paid three times more money to legal entities from the budget reserve than in the previous period, and significant funds were distributed in the month after the elections.
The Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns prohibits the use of funds from the budget reserve in the election year for social assistance. However, at the proposal of the Government, thanks to the votes of the ruling parties in the Parliament, amendments to the Law were adopted which provide for an exception in the case of the state of war, state of emergency, epidemic or pandemic of communicable diseases. The opposition then demanded that the spending of those funds be public, but the Government claimed that the parliamentary Anti-corruption Committee had access to all information. In the meantime, the chairman of the Committee, Predrag Bulatović, Branka Bošnjak and Jole Vučurović, left that body precisely because the ruling party refused to schedule a control hearing on the use of the budget reserve.
MANS Investigative Centre
Billboards in fight against livestock diseases?
According to available data, most of the money was distributed based on decisions of the Ministry of Economy, over € 40 million. These funds were mainly transferred to accounts in commercial banks whose owners are unknown, and it is interesting that over € 150 thousand was paid from that budget line to the Institute Simo Milošević in Igalo in June.
At the proposal of the Ministry of Transport, over half a million Euros was paid to Montenegro Airlines, while at the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture, € 150 thousand was transferred to the Investment and Development Fund. It is especially interesting that at the proposal of Simović’s department, € 46 thousand was paid to the company DPC from Podgorica, which deals with advertising and printing.
According to the data from the decisions of the Government, these funds were allocated to the information campaign of the Directorate for Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Affairs on the topic of lumpy skin disease of cattle, bluetongue disease and African swine fever.
In June, at the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, almost € 300 thousand was paid to the Ćupić Law Office.
Additional € 280 thousand from the reserve for public infrastructure
In the eve of this year’s elections, the budget of the Public Works Administration was additionally increased from the budget reserve, to which € 280,000 was paid through two Government decisions in August. Of that money, € 130,000 is intended for paving of roads in Rožaje, and the rest for the construction of a water supply system in Žabljak. Previous MANS’ investigation showed that during this year’s election campaign, the Administration recorded much higher spending of budget funds compared to the same period last year when there were no elections.
€ 70,000 to SEC for the lease of premises
At the end of July, the Government of Montenegro approved the payment of € 70,000 from the budget reserve for the needs of the State Election Commission. The explanation of this decision states that the lease for “safe premises for work” will be paid from that money due to current epidemiological situation in the country.
