The Montenegrin government decided to open a foreign currency account in Prva banka in June of this year for the payment of loan installments for the controversial ADMAS project according to the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, thus ignoring all previous compromises regarding the opening of an account in that bank for the purposes of realizing the aforementioned project. , which is the subject of an investigation by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), was announced today by Action for Social Justice (ASP).
"Former Minister of Agriculture Aleksandar Stijović exposed that the former Ministry of Agriculture, during the leadership of Petar Ivanović, opened a special account for the ADMAS project at Prva banka, which was not registered in the state treasury and into which loan funds from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development and carried out further transactions with users," the ASP press release points out.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) added that as it was announced in November last year, while Stijović was still the Minister of Agriculture, Prva Bank canceled the account of the Ministry of Agriculture for the Abu Dhabi Fund, because it failed to obtain the documentation it was required to provided when opening the account, and the money was then transferred to a temporary account also at Prva banka.
"The Ministry of Finance is obliged to open a special foreign currency account with Prva Bank, exclusively for the purpose of transferring funds from the bank's temporary account and further transferring funds to the Abu Dhabi Fund, based on the due installments of the loan for the ADMAS project," is part of the Government's conclusion of June 17 years.
"By searching the Internet, it cannot be seen that any media then and in the following days reported that a foreign currency account was opened at Prva banka, which implies that the conclusion was subsequently posted on the Government's website. According to the conclusion, after the opening of a special foreign currency account, the transfer of funds from the temporary account and payments to the Abu Dhabi Fund, the foreign currency account should be closed. The transaction of over 2,6 million US dollars was realized on June 24 through Raifazen Bank in Vienna, as a correspondent bank, and to the National Bank of Abu Dhabi," ASP said.
The statements are part of the official statement of the representative of the Ministry of Finance, which was broadcast in the media on June 25 of this year: "The Ministry of Finance paid 2,6 million dollars based on two due installments for a loan from the Abu Dhabi Fund...A special foreign currency account was opened on behalf of the Government at a commercial bank... This transparent action avoided the risk of declaring the entire debt, in the amount of about 24 million dollars, overdue."
"Thus, the transparency of the finance department of the minority government then ended only with a general mention of the commercial bank, without specifying the name of Prva banka, so the Action for Social Justice then, based on the Law on Free Access to Information, requested information about the name of the bank, the transaction , the act on the basis of which the transaction was carried out," concludes the announcement of ASP.
Apart from the conclusion, the letter to the First Bank, proof of the money transfer and the account balance (after payment), the Ministry of Finance did not, despite ASP's request, submit any other document, which shows why the foreign currency account was opened in the First Bank, and from which it was possible to see whether it was done for reasons of a financial nature (because it was the cheapest), whether there were restrictions of another kind and whether the legal procedure was respected.
Compliance with the legal procedure is particularly important, because earlier the Ministry of Agriculture announced that the account in the First Bank was illegally opened, while in parallel the Special State Prosecutor's Office is conducting an investigation into the ADMAS project, which distributed loans for the development of agriculture.
ASP has prepared new requests for free access to information, which it will send to the Ministry of Finance next week, and from which it can be clearly seen that the entire procedure for opening a foreign currency account was carried out in accordance with regulations, while a famous bank guarantee for this loan will also be requested and the project, which has long been called "controversial" by the public.
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