Yesterday, MANS submitted to the institution of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro a report to initiate proceedings against the Director of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (ASK), Jelena Perović, with a request to ask for compensation for damages on behalf of the Government of Montenegro due to non-fulfilment of the contract obligations when purchasing an apartment under favourable conditions.
In 2018, as the president of the Basic Court in Cetinje, the Director of APC bought an apartment from that court with an area of 86.42 m2 and a storage room of close to 8 m2 for the amount of nearly 32 thousand euros. According to the contract concluded on January 11, 2018, Jelena Perović undertook to remain a judge for at least another 5 years until the conclusion of that contract. In return, she was given the opportunity to buy an apartment under favourable terms, i.e. for around 350 euros per square meter of the apartment.
Extract from the contract on the purchase of the apartment
Thus, the contract obliged Jelena Perović to remain a judge until at least 2023. However, on July 24, 2020, Perović left the Basic Court in Cetinje of her own free will, and the very next day she was appointed director of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption. This created conditions for the activation of the clause in the purchase contract, according to which Perović had to either return the apartment purchased under favourable terms or pay the market price of the apartment, which did not happen.
Instead, the documentation that MANS had access to shows that Jelena Perović, while she was still the President of the Basic Court in Cetinje, sold the apartment that she got under favourable terms to another natural person, for the amount of 73 thousand euros, and she specially verified that business with her signature as the president of the court.
As Perović clearly did not fulfil the contract obligation regarding the minimum number of years she had to spend as a judge after purchasing the apartment, the conditions were met for the Government of Montenegro to initiate legal proceedings against the current director of APC and request that she compensate the market price of the apartment in this particular case.
We expect that the institution of the Protector of Property and Legal Relations of Montenegro will initiate the proceedings for compensation of damages and ensure the protection of the Budget of Montenegro in the appropriate proceedings.
MANS
