Montenegrin
ANTI-CORRUPTION AGENCY (ACA)
Sreten Radonjic, Director
Podgorica, December 23, 2019
Subject: Report on the threat to the public interest regarding the filing and verification of statements of income and property of public executors
Dear Mr. Radonjic,
Pursuant to the amendments to the Law on Public Enforcement Agents (Official Gazette of Montenegro 61/2011, 22/2017 and 17/2019), Article 31a prescribes an obligation for public executors to submit a report on assets and income, from performing public functions, as well as the property and income of spouses and children living in a joint household, in accordance with the law governing the prevention of corruption. Additionally, it is prescribed that the data from the report referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article be checked in accordance with the law governing the prevention of corruption.
Also, Article 23 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption stipulates that this obligation must be fulfilled by a public official within 30 days from the day he takes office, or in this particular case, within the same period from the day the amendments to the Law on Public Executors enter into force, by which this obligation is prescribed, while Article 24 clearly stipulates which information is to be reported.
In Montenegro, this statutory obligation covers 31 public executors. An inspection of the publicly available documentation published on the website of the Anti-Corruption Agency identified the following irregularities:
- Out of 31 public executors covered by the obligation to submit assets and income reports to ACA, 3 public executors did not submit assets and revenues to the Agency, namely: Aleksandar Boskovic, Vladimir Vujotic and Armin Camic.
- Of the 28 public executors who filed property and income reports, 9 of them did not report revenues from public office. These are: Ivana Jelusic, Ana Nikic, Veselin Scepanovic, Mato Jovicic, Jasminka Bajovic, Darko Rajkovic, Maja Ajkovic, Biljana Nikcevic and Radovan Koprivica. The reports of the mentioned public executors do not contain information on the revenues that the public exectors have on the basis of performing public-enforcement activities;
- Most of the first reports submitted by public executors did not contain information on revenues from the performance of public enforcement activities, and most of the public executors in subsequent reports, in the case of changes from reports relating to the increase of assets over 5,000 e, reported revenues from performing publicly-performing activities;
- The members of the Chamber of Public Executors, with the exception of the President of the Chamber, did not properly declare the revenues they receive from the remuneration for work in the bodies of the Chamber, although this obligation is prescribed by the Law on Prevention of Corruption.
For the sake of clarity, we provide below a systematic table, with individual findings and excerpts from the submitted reports to the ACA:
The procedure for verifying the data from the report is conducted by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ACA) and in accordance with Article 30 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption, the Agency performs the verification of the data from the Report by comparing this data with the collected data on assets and revenues of public officials from the authorities and legal entities who dispose of those data. It is clear that in this particular case, the Agency did not fulfill its legal obligation, that is, it did not check whether the public executors submitted their income and property reports within the statutory deadline, or the content of those reports.
Having that in regard, and in accordance with the competences of the ACA, we ask you to determine whether the public executors have violated the provisions of the Anti-Corruption Act relating to the statements of income and property of public executors, as well as to carry out detailed scrutiny of the submitted reports on property and income of public executors, with a purpose to eliminate irregularities or supplement incomplete information currently contained in them. In addition, we expect you to initiate legal proceedings against public executors Aleksandar Bošković, Vladimir Vujotić and Armin Camić who did not file statements of income and property within the statutory time limits, in the legally prescribed procedure, of public executors Ivana Jelusic, Ana Nikic, Veselina Scepanovic, Mata Jovicic, Jasminka Bovic, Jasminka Bovic , Darko Rajkovic, Maja Ajkovic, Biljana Nikcevic and Radovan Koprivica, who did not report their revenues from performing public office, as well as to check the data from the submitted reports, comparing this data with the collected data on assets and revenues of public officials from government bodies and legal entities who have that information.
In the hope that you will approach this case effectively and in a timely manner, inform us of the activities undertaken,
With respect,
Ana Nenezić
Executive Director
