Minister of Economic Development Jakov Milatović stuck to his previously stated position that he expressed in May at the session of the Parliamentary Committee for Economy and Budget when he said that until now we have not had ministers who do not steal.
Yesterday, the minister was heard in his capacity as a citizen at the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Podgorica due to the criminal complaint filed against him by ministers from the previous government Sanja Damjanović, Predrag Bošković, Suzana Pribilović, Dragica Sekulić and Aleksandar Bogdanović.
Milatović said that this is his personal attitude based on the perception that a large number of citizens in Montenegro share with him and which is based on a large number of relevant international reports of strategic partners and non-governmental organizations, such as MANS and the Employers' Union.
He cited parts of the Strategy on the enlargement of the European Union and reports of the European Commission and the US State Department, which stated, as he said, that corruption in Montenegro was present at a high level.
"In the previous period, high level corruption was not adequately punished, so a feeling of inequality and insufficient justice was created in the public, which collapses the system and the feeling that Montenegro can experience stronger economic development", Milatović believes.
He stated that it is now up to the ODT whether to file a criminal complaint against him or to dismiss it.
Milatović said that he was glad that he was promptly summoned to the prosecutor's office, but he expects that this institution will also react more effectively to the criminal charges filed by the government and non-governmental organizations in the past period.
"The Minister of Capital Investments, Mladen Bojanić, filed ten criminal charges for various abuses within state-owned enterprises, but unfortunately he received a reply a day ago that those charges are still in the investigation phase. We, as a society, no longer have time to wait for such slow reactions from the prosecution," said Milatović in a statement to journalists after the hearing.
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