Action for Social Justice (ASP) announced that on Monday it will send a formal initiative to Prime Minister Milojko Spajić to order the Minister of Finance to declassify the documents on the termination of the hedging arrangement.
At the same time, they are also seeking information on payments made to the former Ministry of Capital Investments (MKI), and the current Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, in connection with the highway project "months after the first section was completed".
The Ministry of Finance, as they state, this week, in a decision signed by the new Minister of Finance Novica Vuković, rejected ASP's request to provide them with complete documentation from the Ministry of Finance regarding the termination of the hedging arrangement, as well as all transactions/account turnover on that basis.
"The Ministry of Finance referred to the secrecy designation from June of this year, which was passed by the then-minority government of Dritan Abazović, although the new minister had the option to invalidate the earlier decision on secrecy and then pass a new one by which he would submit the requested documentation. The secrecy designation itself from of June of this year is legally completely unjustified and in the harmfulness test it is stated with only one word 'yes' that the publication of information on the results of the termination of the hedging arrangement would threaten the economic policy of Montenegro, without a single additional word of explanation, and ASP will file a complaint with the Administrative Court for such of legal action," said that NGO.
ASP assesses that the very first moves of the new minister "hint that he will play the 'secrecy card', not transparency and the public's right to know".
"The new Prime Minister publicly claims that one of his main priorities is the transparency of work, so the ASP expects to order the publication of information and accompanying documentation on the termination of the hedging arrangement. In addition, the ASP requests that information be disclosed to the public about the payments involved in the former MKI, and the current Ministry of Transport, based on the project of the first section of the highway, and months after it was completed, what exactly was their job and what were they paid for," adds ASP.
They said that this NGO had prepared a set of requests based on the Law on Free Access to Information according to the newly formed Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, and after a report from a citizen that the close relatives of the heads of the state department were also enabled to receive a monthly allowance based on the project of the first section of the highway , months after it was officially completed.
"In the meantime, the ASP again requested the final invoice from Monteputo, which was issued by the main contractor, the Chinese China Road and Bridge Corporation, but this state-owned company reported that it was not issued, as it remained to complete the unfinished works to eliminate the deficiencies observed in during the use-trial operation", conclude from the ASP, reminding that the first section of the Bar - Boljara highway was officially opened in July 2022, i.e. almost a year and a half ago.
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