By appointing the former SNP MP, Aleksandar Damjanović, as the acting director of the Revenue Administration, the Government of Montenegro continues at the very least questionable personnel policy in sectors that are particularly vulnerable to corruption and in which radical changes are necessary.
The Revenue Administration was created by merging the Tax Administration and the Games of Chance Administration, which are two state institutions that have been particularly burdened by abuses and significant omissions when it comes to control and collection of taxes. This has been especially evident in the case of the so-called privileged companies owned by the people close to DPS and its president, Milo Đukanović.
Precisely because of that, the decision of the Government of Montenegro to appoint Damjanović to such a responsible position is incomprehensible, bearing in mind his previous work biography in the Parliament of Montenegro, which was not deprived of procedures from which the previous regime and tycoons connected with it predominantly benefited.
Namely, as the chairman of the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget, Damjanović was part of the parliamentary delegation that visited the bank Prva banka Crne Gore in mid-2010 to determine whether the aid that the bank received from the budget was legally spent. The delegation which, apart from Damjanović, then consisted of the current governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG), Radoje Žugić, and DPS MP, Zarija Franović, did not register any violation of the law.
Two years later, an investigation by OCCRP and MANS on Prva Banka’s operations showed that at the time of the parliamentary delegation’s visit, there was very concrete evidence of the bank’s illegal activities, breaching of banking procedures, mismanagement of customer deposits and granting unsecured loans to related parties.
Although the subject of his committee’s work was the control of how Prva Banka spends aid from the state budget, Damjanović said in the show “Načisto” that “if these data are correct, CBCG should have dealt with it”, but also confirmed having, as he said, “civil informal meetings” with members of Đukanović family.
Already in 2014, Damjanović confirmed that the “meeting with the interests of Đukanović family” did not end with the case of Prva Banka, after MANS sent a proposal to the Parliament to change the legislation defining the financing of political parties and proposed the formation of a special parliamentary body to control the implementation of the law.
Back then, Damjanović proposed an amendment to transfer the control of party financing to the competence of his committee, which was adopted thanks to the votes of DPS MPs. We had the opportunity to see in all previous elections what the control of party financing by Damjanović’s board looked like after that, and which party benefited the most from such control.
All this information has been known to the public for a long time, as well as to the Government of Montenegro, we believe, so it is incomprehensible why the choice for departments in which radical reforms are necessary has fallen upon very Damjanović. After the session, the Government has not yet published more detailed information on the election of the Acting Director of the Revenue Administration, or whose specific proposal it was.
In any case, we believe that by choosing such candidates for positions that are particularly vulnerable to corruption and that require maximum transparency of the work of state bodies, the Government is unfortunately still not stepping away from what was the practice of the previous government. This is especially so because these are departments from which a lot is expected when it comes to the fight against corruption as one of the key promises given to citizens.
MANS
