Two former ministers of agriculture and rural development, Petar Ivanović and Milutin Simović, former state secretary Nemanja Katnić and the former head of the Finance Service were arrested due to the illegal payment of money from the Agricultural Budget, which, as suspected by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), caused damage to the state of 300.000 euros. , accounting and public procurement Vukica Perović.
Another Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Budimir Mugoša, was also included in the criminal report of the Special Police Department.
The SDT stated in a statement that the SPO filed a criminal complaint, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that they committed - three extended criminal offenses of abuse of official position and two criminal offenses of abuse of official position.
"The subject of the criminal complaint and proceedings is the allocation of funds to certain non-governmental organizations, in the period from April 2014 to July 2019, contrary to the Decree on the conditions, manner and dynamics of the implementation of agrarian policy measures - the Agricultural Budget for specific years, which benefited non-governmental organizations , and damage was inflicted on the injured Montenegro in the amount of over 300,000 euros in total," the Special State Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
The police will take the suspects to the SDT for questioning within the legal term.
Ivanović was arrested in a house in Doljani, and numerous police officers searched the villa, estate and vineyard owned by the former Minister of Agriculture.
From 2016 to 2020, Milutin Simović was the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Deputy Prime Minister during the time when Duško Marković was Prime Minister.
Former state secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Nemanja Katnić and former head of the Finance Service Vukica Perović were also arrested in the case.
Petar Ivanović was the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2012 to 2016, and then worked as a member of Parliament. From 2018 to May 2023, Ivanovic was the economic adviser to the former President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović.
At the end of October, the indictment against Ivanović for the Abu Dhabi fund affair was confirmed, and the court proceedings in that case are also expected against the accused former Minister of Agriculture Budimir Mugoša, whom SDT accuses of abuse of position in this case.
Zoran Vukčević, the former head of the Investment and Development Fund (IRF), is also charged with unscrupulous work in the service.
The Abu Dhabi Development Fund (ADF) is a state agency of the United Arab Emirates, which in 2015 provided a loan of 50 million dollars to encourage agriculture in the north of Montenegro. The SDT indictment charges them with the criminal offense of abuse of official position from 2015 to 2017, during the allocation of money from the Abu Dhabi Fund loan.
The arrested Katnić was the state secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development from January 2013 to October 2017 when the ministers were Petar Ivanović, briefly Budimir Mugoša and later Milutin Simović.
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