Yesterday, the Privatization Control Commission adopted two conclusions in connection with the case of "Boksiti", by which it will request information from the Special Prosecutor's Office about the initiated investigation into the operations of the company "MN Prominent", whose founder was the Democratic Party of Socialists, which for years sold fuels and lubricants. Bauxite, as well as that they will ask the Ministry of Capital Investments for data on concessions and mined quantities of ore while this company was managed by the Russian CEAC.
After that, the second session of the Commission continued, where problems and unfulfilled contracts in the case of the privatization of Jugopetrol from 2002 were discussed, but the president Maksim Vucinic broke off after two and a half hours of discussion, in which there were several heated arguments and arguments between the DPS MP and the former minister Petar Ivanovic and part of the deputies from the new ruling majority. Ivanovic is still a member of parliament and is awaiting the removal of his immunity because the Special State Prosecutor's Office suspected him in the "Abu Dhabi" case for abuse of official position and potential multimillion-dollar damage to the state budget.
Member of the DF Dragan Bojović he asked Ivanovic if his mother is still in the top ten shareholders of Jugopetrol with 26 shares worth 300 euros, how that property was acquired, whether Ivanovic reported it or because it was owned by his mother he did not have to report it. Bojović said that he has an 81-year-old mother, a similar age to Ivanović's, that she is agile and bright, skilled in many things, but not in business. He stated that he is interested in this because Ivanovic is a former high official.
Bojović also asked Ivanovic if it was true that he designed the scheme of the president's offshore companies Milo Đukanović, whose adviser, as well as whether he received documents from offshore companies, which are mentioned in the network of the Šarić brothers' companies, at his home address, and forwarded them to the lawyer Zorica Đukanović. He said that the Panama Papers also mention Mark Harrison advisor to the former DPS government in the case of the privatization of Jugopetrol, but also that he played a role in many other controversial privatizations such as Telekom, Željezara, the aluminum plant...
To the then vice-president of the Privatization Council Veselin Vukotić and the president of the tender commission Branko Vujović was tried after this privatization of Jugopetrol, because they paid Harrison three million euros for consulting without even being selected as a consultant in the international tender. The court acquitted them on the grounds that they did not make the decisions on hiring Harrison themselves.
Ivanović replied that Bojović was entering into his family's intimacy with questions, as well as that his mother had shares in Jugopetrol, but that she no longer has them.
"I don't see any problem with any citizen using his money as he wants, including the ability to buy and sell the shares he wants. Sometimes it happens that someone makes money on that job, sometimes they lose, but don't take away my knowledge in that field", said Ivanovic, without specifying whether it was his mother or he who earned those shares on the stock market.
He said that anyone who doubts the origin of the money can initiate proceedings with the competent authorities, and that he had no business relationship with Harrison.
Regarding the issue of receiving documents from foreign companies at his home address, Ivanovic said that this happened when he was the director of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (MIPA) and that he had a triple fracture of his leg, which is why he received mail at home. The question that remained unanswered was how it was possible that he received the documentation about the disputed company at home, instead of being filed in the office at the official place.
At the beginning of the session, Vučinić stated details from the privatization of Jugopetrol, as well as the fact that the buyer Hellenik from Greece did not fulfill its obligations regarding recapitalization, investments, maintenance and growth of the number of employees, as well as that it violated the contract when it moved its headquarters from Kotor to Podgorica. He stated that he was a serious investor, but that, like many others, he understood that he could behave as he wanted in Montenegro because no one controlled him.
Zdenka Popović from Demokrat stated that the privatizations were natural disasters and that the state would now, if it had not sold the monopoly company, be in a much more favorable situation due to the rise in oil prices. She also said that in the analysis of the Faculty of Economics, it was stated that the buyer does not finance the investment in Jugopetrol from his own money, as was required, but from Jugopetrol's money, and that the number of workers was reduced from 800 to 89.
Liberal Party MP Andrija Popović he stated that this was a bad privatization, but that now after 19 years "we can only cry". He said that Jugopetrol was the driving force behind the development of Kotor and Boka, but that the new owner moved it to Podgorica and that now only about 15 people from Kotor work for that company. GK
"I'll pay you back sometime"
Due to the conflict between the MPs, which at times turned into insults, Vučinić once gave a break in order to calm the passions, and the second time he interrupted the session.
During the break, Ivanovic verbally attacked Bojović for mentioning his mother's actions in Jugopetrol.
"It is very ugly and eyeless. I'll pay you back sometime. Shame on you and shame on you. "I can say anything about your wife," Ivanovic said.
"Are you threatening me, don't talk to me like that," replied Bojović.
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