If within the next three days the Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not issue an opinion on whether he is an employee of the Police Directorate Mladen Suškavčević violated the Code of Police Ethics, that case will expire because January 26 will be exactly half a year since the request was filed.
Police officers Željko Pejović i Igor Rmandic, On July 26, 2022, they submitted a request to the Ethics Committee for an opinion - whether Šuškavčević violated the Code of Police Ethics, i.e. submitted an asset card to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, but so far no decision has been made on this request.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed in its response that they received the request at the end of July, but in order to complete the case and issue an opinion, they are reportedly waiting for months for a statement from the leaders of the Special Purpose Police Sector, where Suškavčević has a timetable.
They stated that the members of the Ethics Committee, after receiving the request, considered the case at the next session on August 22, 2022 and requested information from the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption whether Šuškavčević submitted a report on income and assets.
"On September 26, 9, the Ethics Committee received a response from the Agency, which states that police officer M. Š. did not submit a report on income and assets in accordance with Article 2022 of the Law on Internal Affairs in connection with Article 169 paragraph 23 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption. On September 7, 30, a letter was sent to the Special Purpose Police Department, in which police officer M. Š. has a scheduling solution, for the police officer to declare the circumstances, in order to consider all the elements when giving an opinion by the members of the Ethics Committee. The request for supplemental documentation in the sense of the police officer's statement is a practice that the Ethics Committee implements in all cases, if the statement or official note of the officer against whom the proceedings are being conducted has not been previously submitted," reads the MUP's response.
When asked by "Vijesti" whether they will make a decision by January 26, when the statute of limitations for this case threatens, the MUP answered:
"We expect that the statement will be delivered before January 26, that is, before the statute of limitations in this case, and the president of the Ethics Committee will schedule a session to give an opinion," the MUP states.
In response, the Ministry of Interior emphasized that at one of the previous sessions, the members of the Ethics Committee adopted a conclusion regulating the issue of statute of limitations due to non-submission of documentation, in such a way that in accordance with Article 173 point 19 of the Law on Internal Affairs, they will initiate appropriate proceedings against immediate managers.
Due to the fact that the Ethics Committee has not made a decision in that case for months, police officers Pejović and Rmandić wrote an urgent letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs on December 2 last year. Filip Adžić, who were informed that the Board, in addition to submitting the decision of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, requested the same document from that institution.
"We submitted to the Ethics Committee a notice from the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, in which it is said that they have already determined that Šuškavčević committed a misdemeanor and that the agency has filed a request for initiation of misdemeanor proceedings against him before the competent court. We are justified in asking what is the purpose of asking for the KAS decision again if we know that it will only confirm the document that the board already has. The question arises as to whether the members of the Ethics Committee are deliberately delaying this process in order to reach the statute of limitations and so that they can be declared incompetent after that," the letter to the minister reads.
UP officials also stated that one of the members of the Ethics Committee is an UP employee who was just appointed by Šuškavčević: "Who has been the president of that union for years, against the will of the police administration union authorities, and about which we also warned the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
"It's about a police officer Predrag Jokić against whom a report was submitted to the Ethics Committee also for a misdemeanor under the jurisdiction of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. In this case, the Ethics Committee refers to the fact that the decision on the complaint lasted longer than 6 months and that the procedure is out of date. The board finds the basis for such action in Article 20 of the Rules of Procedure of the Ethics Board. We note that despite our efforts and desire, we have not been able to find the text of these Rules of Procedure anywhere, i.e. it is not publicly available, so we reasonably suspect that the entire case was adjusted as it suited individual or all members of the Ethics Committee", it is written in the address of Pejović and Rmandić.
Express decision for commenting on Facebook
The case of the employee of the PV Police Administration shows that the Ethics Committee makes express decisions in some cases.
By a unanimous decision of the members of the Ethics Committee, an officer of the Border Police PV was punished for violating the Code of Police Ethics, after he wrote negative comments on the work of Minister Adžić on the social network - the page of the MUP.
On October 7, the President of the Ethics Committee and Chief of Cabinet of the MUP, Kristina Đukanović, submitted to the Committee a request for a statement regarding the writings of the UP official on Facebook.
Two months later, a decision was made in that case.
Bonus video:
