Dejan Milovac (MANS) & Tina Popović (ND Vijesti)
At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, the National Security Agency (ANB) purchased cars worth almost 1.2 million euros, of which one vehicle alone – “Mercedes Maybach” – was paid more than 647,000 euros. This can be seen from the invoices obtained by the Investigative Centre of the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS), based on the Law on Free Access to Information.
Mercedes Maybach of the President Milo Đukanović
One of the Maybach vehicles is used by Montenegro’s President Milo Đukanović, and the other was used by the current DPS MP Duško Marković while he was the prime minister.
At the end of November 2017, the proforma invoice was issued to ANB for one of the two Maybachs, according to the documentation obtained by MANS. It is a vehicle produced in 2017, of almost 6,000 cc and 620 horsepower, with four doors and four seats, colour – obsidian black metallic, whose price without VAT is 543,968.07 euros. The total price of the vehicle, including VAT, is 647,322 euros.
Proforma invoice based on which Maybach was paid
The proforma invoice also states that the payment will be made in two instalments, i.e. half of the total price will be paid within seven days from the signing of the contract, and the other half within 60 days from the day of delivery and confirmation of the equipment validation. On January 18, 2018, the Agency submitted to the State Treasury of the Ministry of Finance a request for payment of the total price – 647,322 euros. The data on the purchase of the two Maybahs were marked with the degree of secrecy internal, hence the details of the purchase were unknown until now.
ANB: We do not have the information, i.e. we do, but it is marked “internal”
However, ANB refused to submit to MANS documentation related to other payments from the State Treasury from the end of 2017 which also relate to the payment of “means of transport”.
It is about two requests for payments – 514,408 euros from December 2017, and 106,780 from October 2018.
ANB’s response denying the access to information
MANS requested copies of payment requests and invoices on the basis of which these two payments were requested from the State Treasury.
“In the further course of the procedure, ANB determined that it was not in possession of the requested documents, and that the data in question were contained in the documentation resulting from the application of Article 48 of the Law on the National Security Agency… According to decision 250/15-10-12231/2 from 8.12.2015, that documentation is marked with the level of secrecy ‘internal’. Bearing in mind that access to documents marked as classified was requested, and that Article 1, paragraph 2, item 2 of the Law on Free Access to Information stipulates that the provisions of the said law, inter alia, do not apply to information that must be kept secret, in accordance with the law regulating the field of classified information, pursuant to Article 116 of the Law on Administrative Procedure, free access to the requested information is denied”, it is stated in the decision submitted to MANS, signed by the acting director of ANB, Dejan Vukšić.
Who made the assessment that extravagance was necessary and justified?
The director of the MANS Investigative Centre, Dejan Milovac, announced that the NGO would certainly appeal against the decision of the acting director of ANB, Dejan Vukšić, to deny access to information on payments from the state budget.
“This is information about how citizens’ money was spent, which should by no means be a secret. Although ANB submitted complete documentation for one vehicle, for the other one we received a response that the documentation for it was marked with the degree of secrecy ‘internal’. It is interesting that the decision to classify the information dates from December 2015, and it refers to the purchase of vehicles in December 2017”, Milovac told “Vijesti”.
According to him, both payments were made from the ANB’s budget, from the budget item “means of transport”, but the Agency decided to remove the classification mark for one payment, while for the other one, it complied with the decision of the previous administration from 2015 and denied access to information.
“When it comes to the amounts that this institution paid for the purchase of vehicles of the highest state officials, the invoice obtained by MANS remains as a testimony to an absolutely arrogant attitude towards citizens’ money. “What is still an unanswered question is who made the assessment that this purchase was necessary and justified, and whether we really had to spend over one million euros for two official vehicles,” Milovac said.
The vehicles are going to be sold
The government recently adopted a proposal to initiate proceedings for the sale of two state-owned Mercedes Maybach vehicles. According to the Prime Minister, Zdravko Krivokapić, “funds from the sale of these vehicles will be paid into the budget of Montenegro, and they will be used to help vulnerable citizens and improve social justice in the country”.
In a video message, he stated that the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare is in charge of hiring an appraiser who will assess the value of the vehicle, as well as form a commission for the sale of vehicles until the next ordinary session of the Government. The Prime Minister clarified that after that, an international public invitation for participation in the public tender will be published. “The public tender will last for eight days, and after that a public auction will be organized at which the best bidder will be publicly and transparently selected,” Krivokapić announced earlier.
Published in Independent Daily “Vijesti”
