The National Council for the Fight against Corruption will soon be constituted, and it will be headed by the Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic.
Sources close to the Government told "Vijesti" that the new anti-corruption body, that is, the National Council for the Fight against Corruption, will have significantly more members and will be made up of representatives of the institutions of the executive power, the judiciary, the prosecution, relevant NGOs, as well as representatives of business associations.
They also state that the minister is without a portfolio Zoran Miljanic, in charge of implementing the anti-corruption policy, had a series of meetings with representatives of Montenegrin institutions, but also with diplomats from partner countries and international institutions, during which he presented the anti-corruption measures that will be implemented by the Government, especially the constitution of a new council and the preparation of the National Strategy for the fight against corruption.
According to the same sources, foreign experts will be involved in the preparation of that document.
The Government's goal is to find an adequate answer for all types of corruption, at all levels, and to recognize the progress in the fight against it already in the upcoming report of the European Commission.
In previous reports, corruption was recognized as one of the pressing problems of Montenegrin society.
Abazović, as a former deputy prime minister, was the head of the previous council from December 17, 2020, which was called the National Council for the Fight against High-Level Corruption, but that body disbanded after his conflict with the then prime minister Zdravko Krivokapić.
At the end of January of this year, Krivokapić dismissed Abazović and took over the leadership of the National Council, and immediately after that, the member of that body resigned Milan Popovic, head of the expert team of the National Council Vanja Ćalović Marković and team member Milena Popović Samardžić, so the National Council effectively ceased to exist.
A few days before them, he resigned due to the election as a member of the Prosecutor's Council Stevo Muk, so formally only Krivokapić and the former finance minister remained in the National Council Milojko Spajic.
Ćalović Marković previously stated that the National Council could not achieve results due to the political disinterest of individual members and due to institutional obstructions.
"Prime Minister Krivokapić was not interested in that, and Vice Prime Minister Abazović was simultaneously negotiating with (Milo) Đukanović", she pointed out, adding that she was tripped up at every step in her work.
She stated that upon taking office she was very optimistic, but that a large part of the documentation required for the work of the National Council was destroyed.
She claimed that this happened while the Krivokapić Government was being negotiated, and that during that time the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) was in possession of all the files.
"I was looking for some information, I saw that most of it had been destroyed, such as the documentation on Možura... Only some fragments of documents that were publicly available before were left," said Ćalović Marković.
When asked why the National Council failed to complete its mission, Abazović's cabinet recently told "Vijesta" that they do not agree with that assessment.
"First of all, Montenegro received such a body for the first time. During the work of the National Council, several corruption cases were opened, for which special merits go to the head of the Council's expert team Ćalović Marković. It is necessary to remind about the affairs of 'Flats', 'Highway', 'Free Zone Luke Bar' and numerous others initiated by the Council", they announced.
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