The management of "Plantaža" corrected most of the irregularities of Maraš and Vukotić

In the past two years, the management of the company "Plantaž" fully fulfilled ten of the 20 recommendations made by the State Audit Institution (DRI) based on the irregularities and illegalities established in the report on the audit of the annual financial report of "Plantaž" for 2018.

In the report published yesterday and signed by the senator Zoran Jelic, SAI states that six recommendations were not fulfilled by the end of the period in which they worked, and that four recommendations were partially fulfilled. In the answers of the company's management, during the investigation by the SAI, it was stated that the conditions for part of the recommendations are being fulfilled, such as and that for some they consider that they have fulfilled them.

Three years ago, DRI established a large number of illegalities and abuses in "Plantaže" during the period when the company was managed by the executive director Verica Marash and chairman of the board of directors Veselin Vukotić, which is why they gave a double negative opinion and sent the report to the prosecutor's office. Maraš and Vukotić are suspected in the "briquettes" case as members of a criminal group that caused multimillion-dollar damage to the company.

The management of the company fulfilled the main recommendations regarding the irregularities that caused the greatest damage to the company in the past years and influenced the falsified and erroneous reports on business operations, i.e. exaggerating false positive business results.

So the company is now making provisions for potential losses due to litigation, which the previous management did not do. Due to the non-allocation for these reservations, as determined by the SAI, the business result for 2018 was overestimated by EUR 535 thousand, which is the amount of court fees in 2019. In the past two years, the company hired auditors to assess these costs, so the business report for 2021 stated a provision for court proceedings in the amount of 1,2 million euros.

In 2018, the company did not have a Rulebook on accounting and accounting policies, which allowed it to have flexible accounting and to present reports that suited the management. The new administration, in cooperation with the Institute of Certified Auditors and the audit firm KPMG, created a new rulebook and accompanying documents, which fully fulfilled recommendation 7.

The auditors had previously established that the keeping of business books and posting of orders was done contrary to the Law on Accounting. Because of this, it happened that posting orders were not reversed, but were deleted or subsequently changed without leaving any traces of this in the company's system, that is, there was no credible accounting documentation. One of the consequences is that increased depreciation must now be calculated subsequently. The new administration amended the Rulebook related to keeping business books, which fulfilled recommendation 8.

In the earlier period, the company did not include the cost price calculation segment in its accounting information system, which created the possibility of abuses. The new management adopted the Cost Price Calculation Methodology, thus fulfilling recommendation 10.

The auditor established three years ago that the company's management at the time did not suspend all employees' wages, so that part of the claims from privileged workers remained unpaid, which caused great damage to "Plantaž". The new management initiated the collection of all claims from workers and former members of the management, of which the most significant part of two million euros refers to privileged housing loans for the then management. During the past year and this year, the company collected 417 of these obligations from management members and workers, thus fulfilling the recommendation of the 13th.

In recent years, the company incorrectly reported the amount of mandatory reserves on the sub-account, which was determined by the SAI. The new management amended the Statute and stopped the practice of recording these reserves, thus fulfilling the recommendation of 14.

The SAI previously established that the members of the board of directors received money on various other grounds in addition to their fees, which was contrary to the Rulebook on the Accounting Framework. Now the members of the management board do not receive any other remuneration from the company except their own, which fulfills recommendation 16.

Previously, as established by the SAI, the company violated the Law on the Prevention of Illegal Business by receiving and paying out huge amounts of money in cash through the cash register. The new administration amended the Rulebook on cashier operations and stopped this illegal earlier practice, thus fulfilling the recommendation of 18.

And recommendation 19 referred to an earlier violation of the Rulebook on Cashier Operations, because the company used cash from the cashier's office for illegal payments to employees on various disputed grounds, for payments to legal entities and individuals based on services rendered and payments without complete documentation. The new administration amended the controversial rulebook and stopped this practice, thereby fulfilling this recommendation.

In its twentieth recommendation, the SAI also requested changes to the Rulebook on Cashier Operations due to illegal payments to natural persons, which was also fulfilled.

The administration does not agree with the six recommendations that have not been fulfilled

The SAI stated that the company's management did not fulfill six recommendations.

Recommendation number 3 referred to the fact that previously there was no internal audit service in the company, which prevented management control, as well as that no person was appointed in charge of the establishment, implementation and development of financial management and control (FMC manager). The new management appointed the audit service and the FMC manager, but the SAI stated that this recommendation was not fulfilled because the documents on the audit work plans, the risk register, the audit improvement plan were not adopted... The management stated that the change in the structure of employees in the Service is underway internal audits, as well as establishing process documentation.

Recommendation 4 also referred to the operational deficit of the Internal Audit Service. The Administration stated that the rulebook on the functioning and system of internal audit is being drafted, as well as that the formal constitution of the Audit Board is awaited. DRi stated that the recommendation was not implemented.

The SAI stated that recommendation 6, which referred to the creation of an act on risk assessment, was not implemented either. The Company stated that its development is underway.

According to the SAI, recommendation 11, which requested the harmonization of acts related to the inventory of assets, was not fulfilled either. The company stated that they had passed the Rulebook on Census and the Decision on Census Commissions, and the SAI replied that the census was not performed on the PL form, and that the commission did not submit the census list in electronic form to the accounting department.

SAI states that recommendation 15, which refers to informing shareholders, has not been fulfilled. The objection is that during the last distribution of the dividend in 2017, some shareholders did not even know about it, so they did not collect it within the legal deadline, which returned it to the company. The management responded that by amending the Statute, they further specified their obligations towards the shareholders, but the SAI did not accept this as a fulfillment of their obligation.

DRI stated that they found six workers (out of over 600) who do not meet the conditions in terms of the required professional qualification. The company said that it is about workers with over 30 years of work experience in those workplaces or workers who know the English language, which they need for that workplace, but who do not have an official diploma to know the English language. Therefore, the SAI considers that even recommendation 17 has not been fulfilled.

You're not on a business trip if you don't spend the night in a hotel?

DRI stated that "Plantaže" partially fulfilled four recommendations from three years ago.

Recommendation 1 referred to a new assessment of the value of the company's land and property, which the management did. However, the SAI stated that not all real estate documents were delivered to them within the requested period, which is why they stated that this recommendation was not fully fulfilled.

Recommendation 5, which refers to the selection of the audit committee, has been partially fulfilled because the approval of the Ministry of Finance is still awaited.

Recommendation 9 refers to changes to the Rulebook on the accounting framework in connection with the assessment of the gross balance. The administration replied that a different recording technique does not call into question the quality of balance positions, but SAI stated that this recommendation was not fully fulfilled.

Most of the correspondence between the SAI and the company's management was related to recommendation number 12, which refers to the reimbursement of expenses on an official trip. The SAI found that some employees were paid per diems for official trips "without any evidence that they were on official trips". The requested proof was that they spent the night in a hotel. The company stated that these workers spent the night with relatives and thus saved the company money, and that the proof that they were on a business trip was an order from the management.