The European Commission is again dissatisfied with the results in the fight against corruption, but the head of the government, Duško Marković, does not agree with this assessment, as he considers the work of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption to be "successful".
The Prime Minister told "Vijesta" that he was convinced by the example of his colleagues that this institution is doing its job.
"Both the domestic and international public is aware that this year several government officials were subject to measures and received negative findings from the Agency. Well, since you're asking me - I will evaluate the work of the Agency as successful", said Marković.
And in the eyes of the EC, the fight against corruption is among the areas in which European officials characterized the results as "insufficient".
"For the next period, it will be of crucial importance that Montenegro achieves convincing results, especially in areas that cause concern, which requires the engagement of all relevant institutions and actors involved in this process", it is emphasized in the working document on chapters 23 and 24 of the institutions headed by is Jean-Claude Juncker.
Brussels officials note that despite some general improvement, the general public still does not consider the Agency to be sufficiently independent and proactive, and there are still claims that it is instrumentalized for political needs. They add that in order to strengthen public trust, the Agency and its staff must ensure maximum transparency, integrity, impartiality and independence.
In the part that concerns the work of the Agency, it is stated, among other things, that it has not yet discovered any misuse of public resources for party and election campaign purposes, it has not established any cases of illegal enrichment, but also that its decisions and opinions are problematic.
The Director of the Agency Sreten Radonjić did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" on how to comment on the findings of Brussels and what they will do to deliver convincing results in this area.
From 70 to 60 percent, the number of those who gave the Agency access to their bank accounts dropped, and Brussels considers that only 10 of the 19 members of Duško Marković's Government gave their consent.
"Relying on that data, I want to welcome such a percentage, because it indicates that more than half of the members of the Government have allowed the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption to have access to their bank accounts. I will remind you that I did it myself, and allowed access to my account," Marković told "Vijesta".
However, when asked whether he asked or intends to ask his ministers to give their consent to inspect the bank accounts, the Prime Minister said that it was their personal matter.
"Which is at the level of constitutional freedoms and that it cannot and must not be imposed from any address, so even the prime minister will not do that," the prime minister is categorical.
The agency has not yet detected any misuse of state resources for party and election campaign purposes, despite reports of such abuses.
This year, it launched 15 investigations into unexplained wealth and has so far closed the proceedings in 12 cases without finding any irregularities.
"The agency still needs to carry out more detailed checks on random samples of officials, and work to search for illicit enrichment, changes and movements of assets and identify the origin of assets," warn European officials.
Ćalović Marković: The agency will not check the property before 2016.
It's no wonder that Brussels' objections are the same, given that the Agency has not made a single step forward in two key jurisdictions - abuse of state funds and illegal enrichment, MANS executive director Vanja Ćalović Marković said.
"Although the Commission explicitly says that it should deal with the illegal enrichment of public officials, the Agency says that this is not its mandate, in concrete answers not to some of our reports, and also says that it does not occur to it to deal with the assets of officials before 2016. That is complete legal and any other nonsense, that is, an attempt to somehow draw a line and tell public officials 'all that you illegally acquired until 2016 does not matter, no one will deal with it,'" this former member told "Vijesti" Council of the Agency.
He also adds that it is obvious that this institution does not want to achieve any results, despite numerous reports about the misuse of state resources for party purposes, because its "first man was appointed not to discover election abuses, but to do everything he can to cover them up".
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