The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SST) has renewed its interest in possible criminal offenses committed during the time of the former, DPS-led local administration of Tivat, which was previously largely rejected by the former Chief Special State Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic.
We are talking about several criminal charges filed against the former mayor of Tivat by the SDT during the time when Katnić was the head of that body. Siniše Kusovac (DPS) submitted by the current city administration led by the President of the Municipality Željko Komnenović (The people win), considering that Kusovac caused millions of damages to the city with his actions.
Kusovac's mandate was marked by a series of scandals, starting with his signing of the contract by which the Municipality awarded "Porto Montenegro" with 5,6 million euros that the company owed it for utilities, to the complete financial collapse of the then well-to-do Municipality, when Kusovac was dismissed from the position of mayor, left in the fall of 2020 in millions of debts.
Soon after that, the new government filed several reports against Kusovac to the SDT and other prosecutor's offices for alleged criminal acts of abuse of office and malpractice in the service, from the inappropriate spending of 900.000 euros intended for the construction of the MR 2 road to Luštica Bay, through the forgiveness of the millions of Porto utilities Montenegro, concluding dubious annexes to the contract on the joint construction of a large residential and commercial building on Seljanovo with DPS close to a businessman By Gago Arsić, to seven other affairs in which Tivat was left without millions of money or city property - Atlas bank, Trg magnolija, IPSOS, Youth cooperative, illegal construction and usurpation in Krašići, employment in temporary and casual jobs in the Municipality, awarding of practically gifted housing loans city leaders...
The SDT, headed by Katnić at the time, rejected all those reports due to the lack of reasonable suspicion that any criminal offense was committed, which is being prosecuted ex officio. Katnić prosecuted Kusovac only on the basis of the "Vijesti" text, for abuse of official position due to payment from the Municipality's budget, the hospitality bill for honoring the president of DPS Milo Đukanović and an activist of that party in the campaign for local elections in August 2020, in which DPS lost power. On the order of Kusovac, a bill in the amount of 485 euros was paid from the city budget, which was the only criminal prosecution by the SDT led by Katnić, which ultimately resulted in the sentence against the former Tivat mayor of two months of house arrest, which was imposed on him in September 2023, when was already the current chief special prosecutor at the head of the SDT Vladimir Novović.
The SDT has now decided to re-search the old reports that were submitted to that authority by Kusovac and his associates and on November 15th addressed the Municipality with a letter requesting additional information and documentation relating to the period from 2016 to 2020 in which Kusovac was first the vice-president, and then the president of the municipality. SDT, among other things, requested all criminal charges filed by the local government against former city leaders and officials since the fall of 2020, as well as data on what the external audit, i.e. the Internal Audit Service, dealt with in the period from 2016 to 2020. (SUR) Municipalities.
On December 18, the city administration submitted to SDT the materials of the Secretariat for Finance related to the execution of the Municipality's budget in 2020, debts in the amount of 3.504.330 euros left by Kusovac, and external audit reports on the revision of the proposal for the final account of the Municipality's budget for 2020. .
"Vijesti" had an insight into the Municipality's response to the SDT, from which it can be seen that Novović and his prosecutors, in addition to Kusovac and his associates, also expressed interest in the actions undertaken or not undertaken by the Tivat Municipality SUR, which she managed at the time Jela Mrdak (DPS). By Komnenović's decision in July 2023, she was relieved of her duties as head of the SUR and the Municipality of Kotor filed a criminal complaint against her for evasion of official documentation and negligent work in the service. Mrdak is the Minister of Finance in November 2023 Aleksandar Damjanović employed in the Ministry of Finance.
In the letter sent by the Municipality to SDT, it is stated that according to their data, SUR did not implement any of the planned four audits that year, which were supposed to deal with transfers from the city budget to political parties, the operations of the controversial private-public company "Brand New Tivat ”, expenditures from the city treasury for commissions and councils, and calculations and payments of travel orders in the local administration. Instead, only after the change of government in October 2020, and at the express request of the new mayor Komnenović, Mrdak did two "consulting activities" related to the relationship between the Municipality and the Arsenal Football Club, i.e. the work of the company that manages the wastewater treatment plant.
In the municipality's letter to the SDT, it is pointed out that after the change of government in 2020, the then head of the SUR, Jela Mrdak, also engaged in "as she called it, advisory activities on the following topics: "Tivat Culture Center - lease of office space", "Directorate for investments", "NGO Mladi Boke", "Saving funds and reducing obligations", "Reorganization of parking service", "Decision on the establishment of a sports complex", "Decision on the establishment of an office for RAE", "Unappropriated spending of funds", "Professional service coefficients", IPSOS and "Zgrada Seljanovo".
"Mrdak sent the information about the mentioned observations via e-mail. Folders were found in the premises of the SUR, in which the documentation about the mentioned activities was saved. Paperwork was found that was delivered by the competent authorities to the former manager. It was not filed through the general acts of the SUR, nor were working papers found which, according to the Internal Audit Work Methodology prescribed by the Ministry of Finance, had to exist in order to reach appropriate conclusions and give adequate recommendations to the management of the Municipality. This indicates direct non-compliance with the Methodology and going beyond the scope of its competences. The purpose of the internal audit is to improve the system by giving recommendations based on methodologically arrived at conclusions, and not a mere presentation of irregularities that the person in question observed during the periods when she was in charge of the Service that was supposed to improve the previous system, which is (Mrdak-prim.aut.) used to mislead the new leadership of the Municipality, presenting the role of internal audit in a wrong way", it is written in the Municipality's letter to SDT.
It is emphasized that Mrdak, as the manager of SUR in the Municipality, was employed since 2016, "so she was aware of the irregularities that existed in that system and was obliged to point them out in a timely manner".
"She subsequently presented all observed irregularities to the new leadership of the Municipality, submitting them via email, calling them "advisory activities". Regarding the same, in accordance with the aforementioned Methodology, no working papers were drawn up, and therefore no audit reports in which conclusions should have been drawn and appropriate recommendations given," the letter states, along with a list of control and advisory audits in SUR Tivat was carried out during 2021 when Mrdakova was personally instructed by the new mayor Komnenović.
SDT was provided with all the reports that were submitted to the SUR of the Municipality during 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Central Register of recommendations issued by the SUR to all audit subjects in the period from 2016 to 2022, and all the documentation found in the SUR after Mrdak was dismissed and a criminal complaint was filed against her for evasion of official documents and negligent work in the service.
They reminded that during most of the disputed period from 2016 to 2020, Siniša Kusovac was the head of the Municipality and that in the meantime, several criminal charges were filed against him and his associates, according to which Katnić's SDT and some other state prosecutor's offices in Montenegro did not react.
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