{"id":7369,"date":"2019-01-25T15:25:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T13:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mans.co.me\/en\/?p=7369"},"modified":"2019-01-29T15:39:34","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T13:39:34","slug":"conflict-of-interest-worth-e170-thousand-kept-secret-by-zugic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mans.co.me\/en\/?p=7369","title":{"rendered":"Conflict of interest worth \u20ac170 thousand kept secret by \u017dugi\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Radoje \u017dugi\u0107<\/p><\/div>\n

Author: Lazar Grdini\u0107,\u00a0MANS Investigative Centre<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the course of 2015 and 2016, company Proxim from Podgorica won three tenders announced by the Ministry of Finance, headed by Dr Radoje \u017dugi\u0107, current Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBM), and thus earned \u20ac170 thousand. According to the documentation collected by the MANS Investigative Centre, two out of three contracts were concluded despite the fact that \u017dugi\u0107 had not reported the obvious conflict of interest, which he was obliged to do according to the Law on Public Procurement.<\/p>\n

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Ivan Bo\u0161kovi\u0107<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the Central Register of Business Entities (CRBE), company “Proxim” was registered by \u017dugi\u0107’s nephew, Ivan Bo\u0161kovi\u0107, based on the power he received from certain Milan Vujovi\u0107, registered as the owner and founder of the company, whose activity was “development, implementation and maintenance of information systems”. The aforementioned power of attorney enabled Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 to represent the company unlimitedly in all legal affairs, and what is interesting is that the Governor’s nephew registered the company at the end of May 2015, just over a month before \u017dugi\u0107 announced the first tender worth \u20ac30 thousand. The then Minister of Finance announced the second tender, worth \u20ac60 thousand, at the end of July of that year, while the third was opened in April next year.<\/p>\n

Proxim company, unknown at the time, applied for the first two public announcements, and won as the only bidder. The public procurement procedure was conducted by a commission appointed on behalf of \u017dugi\u0107 by Marina Perovic, the then State Secretary at the ministry, who now works as the head of the governor’s office.<\/p>\n

Income from two jobs received from the Ministry of Finance was also the only income of Proxim in 2015, according to its financial statements available on the website of the Tax Administration, which raises the question of whether the company was founded solely for the purpose of participating in tenders announced by Radoje \u017dugi\u0107.<\/p>\n

The first public announcement related to the purchase of disks for expanding the memory of the information system of the ministry, while the second sought for a company that would maintain the information system of the State Treasury – SAP. Both public procurement contracts were also signed by Marina Perovi\u0107, the former State Secretary, on behalf of \u017dugi\u0107. Tender documentation for these procurements obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre shows that Perovi\u0107, on behalf of \u017dugi\u0107, made a statement that there was no conflict of interest. Moreover, there is no information in the tender documentation that any of the participants in this business recognized the conflict of interest between \u017dugi\u0107 and Bo\u0161kovi\u0107.<\/p>\n

The Law on Public Procurement stipulates that if the conflict of interest arises during the public procurement procedure, the persons involved in the procedure shall be obliged, without delay, to apply for an exemption.<\/p>\n

Third tender was announced in April 2016, and again concerned the maintenance of the information system of the State Treasury – SAP, worth \u20ac80 thousand this time. \u017dugi\u0107 announced the tender after he had personally appointed the tender commission in this case and issued a statement on the lack of conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

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Ra\u0161ko Konjevi\u0107<\/p><\/div>\n

The third tender took place shortly before \u017dugi\u0107 handed over the Minister’s position to Ra\u0161ko Konjevi\u0107, who took over the finance department in May that year, all within the framework of the agreement on the establishment of the Government of electoral trust. Nevertheless, the decision on the selection of the best offer was made then by Konjevi\u0107, and another contract with Proxim was concluded in September 2016, worth almost \u20ac80 thousand.<\/p>\n

“I was not aware of the family ties between the then Minister \u017dugi\u0107 and Ivan Bo\u0161kovi\u0107. For me, it was important that the procurement procedure was correct,”<\/em> Ra\u0161ko Konjevi\u0107, an MP in the Parliament of Montenegro and former Minister of Finance, said in a short statement given to the MANS Investigative Centre.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, answering the question by the MANS Investigative Centre regarding \u017dugi\u0107’s conflict of interest, Marina Perovi\u0107 referred us to the Ministry of Finance: “It is understandable that I cannot remember every single public procurement procedure from the period when I was the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Proxim was liquidated in April last year due to “changed circumstances, market conditions and inability to continue working”, as stated in the decision to initiate a shortened voluntary liquidation procedure. Ivan Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 did not deny association with Proxim, and answering the question of possible conflict of interest, he said that the procurement in the Ministry of Finance was carried out “in accordance with the law, powers and without the influence of family ties”.<\/p>\n

Until the completion of this article, CBM Governor Radoje \u017dugi\u0107 was not responding to our calls, text messages and questions sent by the MANS Investigative Centre regarding the tenders he had announced and the contracts he had concluded with his nephew.<\/p>\n

\u017dugi\u0107 and his nephew also concluded temporary service contracts<\/h2>\n

Ivan Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 currently works at the Central Bank as the Director of the Operational Affairs Directorate in the Information Technologies Department, and has been employed in CBM since 2011, when \u017dugi\u0107 for the first time held the post of CBCG Governor.<\/p>\n

However, cooperation between the two continued after Radoje \u017dugi\u0107 took over the post of Minister of Finance. Namely, in the period from 2013 to 2015, \u017dugi\u0107 personally concluded five temporary service contracts with his nephew.<\/p>\n

The first contract was concluded in mid-2013, according to which Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 audited the IT system at the Ministry of Finance for a fee of \u20ac1,000. Just two months later, \u017dugi\u0107 signed the same contract with his nephew, and Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 once again audited the same system, this time for a fee of \u20ac1,500.<\/p>\n

At the end of that year, another temporary service contract was signed, according to which Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 was in charge of professional analysis of parts of the then proposed new legal solutions concerning the competencies of the Ministry of Finance, for which he received a compensation of \u20ac500. It is interesting that the contract was concluded after the expiration of the time-limit for carrying out the work specified in it, i.e. there is a suspicion that this contract only provides written justification for the money that \u017dugi\u0107 paid to Bo\u0161kovi\u0107.<\/p>\n

During 2014, \u017dugi\u0107 signed a fourth contract with his nephew, by which Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 defined and implemented an action plan for the maintenance of the information system for the needs of the Ministry of Finance. Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 charged additional \u20ac1,500 for the service, and it is interesting that at the time he worked on improving the process, whose maintenance was taken over the following year by the company associated with him – Proxim.<\/p>\n

Latest job that Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 did for the ministry independently was also regarding the SAP system. \u017dugi\u0107 and Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 then concluded a contract that obliged Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 to “perform the tasks of migration of SAP to a new hardware platform”, from February 1 to April 1, 2015, for a fee of \u20ac600. The contract was concluded on March 24, 2015, which also implied “retroactive” work.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Lazar Grdini\u0107,\u00a0MANS Investigative Centre During the course of 2015 and 2016, company Proxim from Podgorica won three tenders announced by the Ministry of Finance, headed by Dr Radoje \u017dugi\u0107, current Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBM), and thus earned \u20ac170 thousand. According to the documentation collected by the MANS Investigative Centre, two<\/p>\n

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