Explanation of Mladen Grgić's irrevocable resignation: I worked responsibly, but I did not have the support of the Government

Despite the fact that by the decision of the Council of the Investment Agency (MIA) on May 6 last year, on the basis of a public competition of the Human Resources Administration, I was appointed as a director with a five-year mandate, and that from the day of my appointment until today, I have acted conscientiously, expertly and professionally in fulfilling my duties , I believe that I do not enjoy the support of the current Government in the technical mandate, which is necessarily necessary for the implementation of the initiated activities on the reform of the Agency, which cannot be implemented without intensive coordination with the Government and relevant ministries.

He stated this Mladen Grgić in the justification of his irrevocable resignation from the position of Agency director, adding that this assessment is based not only on his personal impression, but also on concrete, indirect and direct messages and information that were communicated to him unofficially on several occasions. "Vijesti" has insight into the reasons for the resignation.

Grgić stated that shortly after its formation, the Agency was faced with working in the conditions of the coronavirus pandemic, then there was a political transition and a challenging environment for the process of building this important institution, which is why his main focus in his work was on consolidating the institution and fulfilling its legal responsibilities.

Difficulties with economic citizenship

He stated that in the last year, through joint activities with international partners, they managed to replace a modest budget for the promotion of investment potential, a strengthened team was formed for the evaluation of public-private partnership projects, they received the first projects under the new law, and adopted by-laws necessary for the smooth functioning of the public-private partnership institute, they collected a large number of potential projects from the municipalities, on the basis of which a database of potential investments was formed for the first time...

"One of the big challenges for the Agency was the economic citizenship program, the dynamics of which especially gained intensity at the time of my arrival. The team that dealt with application processing was additionally strengthened to the extent that the Agency's daily activities and legal obligations would not be disturbed. However, the efficiency of program implementation was dominantly influenced by external factors beyond the Agency's control, which are described in the work report and concern the difficulties that arose after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. The uncertainty of the implementation of the program affected the fact that the Agency could not plan resources in order to hire additional workforce", said Grgić.

He reminded that the program was extended towards the very end at the electronic session of the Government, which affected a large influx of incomplete applications, which, in addition to the above-mentioned problems, additionally burdened the work of the implementation team and led to slow processing of applications.

"That situation was overcome at the end of the summer, after which the process was returned to a reasonable time frame, and the team managed to overcome the difficulties caused by the cyber attack. Unfortunately, in the context of discussions related to the economic citizenship program, the Agency was on several occasions completely baselessly targeted in public as the culprit by high government officials, which contributed to the negative marketing of the program and frequent unfounded accusations of abuses, caused, first of all, by ignorance of the regulations that organized program, distribution of competences between several administrative bodies, but also lack of institutional support and often unclear and indecisive actions of competent authorities. As I have already mentioned, the Agency was, most often unjustifiably, under pressure due to the length of retention of applications, so the processing of applications was the shortest and most efficient at the level of the Agency, in the part of its competence, while the so-called delays in the processing of applications occurred at other administrative bodies", pointed out Grgić.

Review of the opinion of the SAI

In his resignation, Grgić also referred to the double negative opinion given in January 2023 by the State Audit Institution (DRI) on the work of the Agency in 2021.

"Given that I took over management in the capacity of acting director in October 2021, I could not influence the way of working that resulted in a negative opinion. It seems that the recommendation concerning the mismatch of the records in the software with the state treasury account balance had the greatest impact on the negative opinion. In its response, the Agency elaborated in detail the reasons for non-compliance, which are clearly explained by the very setting of the program and the fact that the Agency's software is not accounting and is not connected to the treasury account, nor is it within the Agency's competence. The non-compliance is the result of a poorly planned economic citizenship program, a systemic flaw that made it impossible to keep records that would be satisfactory for the SAI. Namely, the procedure envisaged by the program and the fact that the money is partly paid into the budget, makes it impossible for the Agency to establish records that would be financially identical to the balance in the treasury. Since the SAI did not come across any major abuses, and it was established that there was no lack of money, nor similar omissions or illegal actions, the double negative opinion was too strict and created additional negative connotations in the public", Grgić assessed.

He added that the Agency has prepared an action plan regarding the implementation of the recommendations that was sent to the SAI and that there is no reason not to fulfill all the recommendations within the given period.

Correction

In the text that "Vijesti" published on Saturday, March 4, under the title "Grgić resigned", the dates of Grgić's appointment were mistakenly permuted. The text stated that Grgić was appointed acting director in May 2021, and for a full term in October of that year. However, Grgić was appointed acting director in October 2021, and director in May last year. "Vijesti" apologizes to Grgić and the readers.

There is no division of responsibilities in monitoring investment projects

When it comes to the investment sector and its primary activity of monitoring investments, Grgić states, serious systemic difficulties have been identified, which were impossible to remove without broader institutional coordination with relevant ministries and with the support of the Government.

"There is no clear division of responsibilities between the institutions of the system that deal with the monitoring of investment and development projects. it is easily clear that the Law on Public-Private Partnership assigned that role to the Agency, and there is still an overlap of competences between the Agencies, to the greatest extent of the Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism, but also the Ministry of Finance. The current system does not allow effective monitoring and protection of the state's state interests," said Grgić.

According to him, the working bodies formed to monitor investments are often cumbersome and most often without the presence of heads of bodies, which reduces their operational power, and does not provide a mechanism for alerting and preventing possible arbitrations.

"In order to strengthen capacities in this sector, in cooperation with the German development agency GIZ, the Agency participates in the program of establishing mechanisms for the prevention of arbitrations and early warning and elimination of problems faced by investors. The program itself should lead to the creation of a system of more efficient monitoring of investments and resolution of disputes using alternative methods, where the Agency is recognized as a key institution in the system," said Grgić.