Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica dismissed the criminal report against the director of the MANS Investigative Centre, Dejan Milovac, filed by the Mayor of Podgorica, Ivan Vuković.
Vuković suspected Milovac of false reporting in the “Toškovići” case, when MANS filed criminal charges against him and his associates on suspicion of abuse of office.
The criminal report against Vuković was preceded by an investigation conducted by MANS, in which it was determined that the tender for the reconstruction of the sewerage network worth close to two million euros was awarded to the company “Toškovići”, whose owner was convicted of tax evasion and creation of a criminal organization.
As a result of the investigation conducted by MANS, KfW Bank announced that the contract with the company “Toškovići” could not be further financed from their loan, after which PE “Water Supply and Sewerage” terminated further cooperation with that company.
During this investigation, MANS tried to get a comment from the office of the Mayor of Podgorica on the obviously unlawful awarding of the contract to a convicted person, but instead, we received a criminal report because we were dealing with the affairs of the Capital City.
Without getting into Vuković’s modest understanding of the concept of civilian control over the work of state institutions, we recognized the report against MANS as an attempt to set a precedent which aimed not only to put pressure on MANS, but also to discourage all those who have evidence or witnessed illegal affairs of the Capital City.
In that sense, we are glad that the attempt of Mayor Vuković to, by filing a report against MANS, pack illegal actions of the city administration into some alleged political persecution and cause damage to its reputation – failed.
We are not at all interested in political career of Ivan Vuković. However, as a public official who manages the money of the citizens of Podgorica, he must understand that, like his predecessors, he will always be under the scrutiny of MANS and that he must answer to the public for his actions.
MANS
