Today, MANS filed a criminal complaint with the Special State Prosecutor’s Office against Ivan Vuković, the mayor of the Capital City Podgorica, Filip Makrid, the executive director of “Vodovod i kanalizacija” Podgorica, and Ivica Tošković, the owner of the company “Toškovići”, all because of their involvement in the business affair of construction of the secondary sewage system in Podgorica, which was recently discovered by MANS.
Vuković and Makrid are suspected of abusing office and negligent work in the service, which resulted in concluding a contract with the company “Toškovići”, whose owner at the time was convicted of creating a criminal organization and tax evasion. In the MANS’ report, Ivica Tošković is suspected of the criminal offense of fraud and abuse of authority in economy. Mayor Vuković himself had grounds to file a criminal complaint against Tošković, but for now there is no confirmation that he did so.
The contract worth € 1.83 million was concluded at the end of March this year, although the judgement against Tošković was passed in November last year, and the period between those two events was enough for the city officials to learn about a person they are awarding a million-worth job to.
There is more than a well-founded suspicion that Vuković and Makrid had full information about Tošković’s verdict, as well as that they knowingly ignored the facts that could have excluded his company from this job. In that sense, MANS asks the prosecutor to examine all connections between Vuković and Makrid with Ivica Tošković in order to get the clear picture of the motives of city officials to, despite the clear rules of the creditor, assign the job to the company “Toškovići”.
On the other hand, Ivica Tošković submitted a statement within his offer guaranteeing that he was not convicted by a final judgment, by which, as it is suspected, he committed the criminal offense of fraud and abuse of power in economy. There is a well-founded suspicion that this statement, although invalid, served as an excuse for Vuković and Makrid to conclude a disputed deal with Tošković. However, the awarding of the contract worth almost two million Euros had to be preceded by elementary checks of the credibility of the companies with which the Capital City and Vodovod enter into contractual relations, which Vuković and Makrid never did.
“Vardar” affair was the subject of dozens of media articles during last year, and Vuković and Makrid knew for sure who Ivica Tošković was. Such a great omission is virtually impossible if we are talking about serious and professional, and above all, uncorrupted state institutions.
We expect a timely reaction from the State Prosecutor’s Office, which will further clarify the relations between Vuković, Makrid and Tošković and ultimately result in prosecution of all those responsible for breaking the law.
