Podgorica, October 13th 2023. At the end of last month, the Administrative Court, ruling on the request of MANS, again made a decision obliging the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (APC) to carry out the legal procedure of checking the assets of the former President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović.
The first judgment on the MANS lawsuit was reached in 2021, but the APC has not yet implemented or responded to the Administrative Court’s request to provide it with the case files on the investigation of Đukanović’s assets conducted so far.
Back in April 2019, MANS submitted an initiative to APC to start the procedure to determine whether Đukanović violated the Law on Prevention of Corruption when he omitted from the annual reports on income and assets the information that he owns a collection of wristwatches worth several million euros on the market. The agency replied that the assets reported by Đukanović fully corresponded to what was “registered in the official records of state institutions”, but also failed to ask Đukanović for a statement about the origin of the expensive watches.
Ruling on a lawsuit against such a decision of APC, the Administrative Court issued a verdict in favor of MANS in September 2021 and stated that the verification procedure by APC was not carried out in accordance with the law, and ordered them to make a new, legal solution. The judgment also states that the APC was obliged to conduct the so-called “examination procedure and request a public official’s statement”, bearing in mind that it is about property for which records are not kept by state authorities.
As two years later, the APC still did not implement the aforementioned verdict, the MANS asked the Administrative Court to issue a so-called meritorious decision – an administrative act that would replace the decision that the APC has been refusing to issue for two years.
The Administrative Court informed us that they are unable to pass the aforementioned administrative act because the APC has not submitted the case files related to the verification of Đukanović’s property. Instead, the Administrative Court gave the APC another 30 days to implement the verdict from 2021 and start the legal process of checking Đukanović’s assets.
This behavior of APC when it comes to high-ranking state officials is another confirmation of doubts about the objectivity and impartiality of this institution, which is continuously pointed out in the reports of relevant international institutions, including the European Commission.
MANS will continue to monitor the work of APC and to insist that the Law on Prevention of Corruption be equal for everyone, and that decision-making be subordinated to the public and not to anyone’s private or political interest.
MANS
