The basis for privileged loans is abolished

If the Assembly adopts amendments to the Law on the Maintenance of Residential Buildings, the provisions that are the legal basis for granting privileged apartments and loans to officials of the Government, the prosecution, the judiciary, the Constitutional Court and local governments will be deleted from that regulation.

Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) upon application by the Prime Minister Dritan Abazović investigates the decisions of the Governmental Commission for Housing Issues, which in the period from 2016 to the end of 2020, i.e. the change of authority of the DPS, distributed over 100 apartments and loans worth over 1,8 million euros in a disputed procedure.

The SDT asked the Assembly to remove the immunity of the current members of the DPS and Social Democrats who, together with several other colleagues from the government at the time, were in the Government for four years Duško Marković without clear conditions and explanations, distributed loans of more than 15.000 euros - which was the maximum based on the then valid regulations.

In the Assembly, the debate on amendments to the Law, proposed by the Vice-President of the Assembly, was completed yesterday Branka Bosniak (PzP), and the majority parties have announced that they will support him. The session was not attended by members of the opposition, except Gentry of Nimanbegu (Force).

The majority parties condemned this way of putting officials and civil servants, as well as judges and prosecutors, in a privileged position, pointing out that they received apartments from the DPS governments several times.

Bošnjak said during the discussion that the Law on the Maintenance of Residential Buildings contains provisions that contributed to state and public officials getting loans and apartments without advertising: "They have been created a legal basis for making shameful decisions of the Government, according to which they are secretly distributed without advertising apartments and loans on favorable terms, mostly to those who have already solved the housing issue", she said.

She reminded that the Constitutional Court did not decide on the constitutionality of this decision, even though there were initiatives to do so.

"Unfortunately, our Constitutional Court has not been announced for years, of course because the majority of the very judges who should decide on it, have been rewarded with a flat by brutally violating the law. In order to avoid further damage to the state budget, I believe that these provisions should be deleted from the law as a matter of urgency. And if the state wants to lead a housing policy towards certain target groups, it should be regulated by a separate law, transparently, and not hiding behind the Building Maintenance Act," said Vice President Bošnjak.

Most of the former and current judges of the Constitutional Court also received apartments and loans from the government commission. The list includes former and some current officials of the State Prosecutor's Office and the judiciary.

The head of the Commission, whose work is being investigated by the SDT, was the then Minister of Education, and the current deputy of the DPS Predrag Boskovic. SDT requested that his immunity be revoked in order to investigate him criminally, as well as Dragica Sekulić i Suzana Pribilović from DPS, Ivan Brajović i Damir Šehović from SD.

In addition to them, the investigation also included former ministers Budimir Apprentice, Suad Numanović, Sanja Vlahovic (DPS) and Osman Nurkovic (Bosniak Party), former head of the President's Cabinet and former consul in Sremski Karlovci Drazen Milickovic, former Secretary General of the Assembly Aleksandar Jovićević (DPS) and his assistant Jelena Radonjic. Immunity does not protect them from criminal prosecution.

In the application investigated by the SDT, it was stated that the former president and members of the Commission damaged the state for about 1,82 million euros, by distributing housing loans to more than 2016 prosecutors, judges, deputies, ministers and from 2020 to the end of 100 other officials and civil servants.

"The commission made decisions on the granting of housing loans contrary to the provisions of Article 18 of the Decision on the method and criteria for solving the housing needs of officials, which stipulates that an official can be granted a loan for improving housing conditions of up to 15 thousand euros," the criminal complaint states. "News" had an insight.

It is stated that the requests of those who were looking for apartments were formulated in a lump sum, where the Commission was asked for "financial assistance" for the repair or reconstruction of residential buildings or houses, and the applicants themselves "estimated" how much money they needed, without specifying what consists of works, except in certain cases.

"In some requests, the applicants asked for funds for a 'permanent solution to the housing issue', without specifying in what way, and that the Commission always made a decision on granting loans 'in order to improve housing conditions,'" it said.

It is added that from the information provided by the Commission to the Government, there is no indication that in any of the specific cases, before deciding on the requests, an assessment of the expert committee of the Property Administration was obtained, on the basis of which the amount of the loan for improving living conditions would be determined.

"In certain cases, the Commission considered over 90 received requests at the session, in order to prepare information tomorrow that all requests are justified. "During the disputed period, the Commission granted loans to civil servants and state employees, without specifying the 'importance of the jobs' that these persons perform," the application states.

It is emphasized that the Commission, when deciding on the requests of judges and state prosecutors, ignored the valid provisions of the Law on Housing and Maintenance of Residential Buildings that "the procedure, method and criteria for solving the housing needs of judges, prosecutors and judges of the Constitutional Court are determined by an act of the Judicial Council, the Prosecutor's Council and the Constitutional Court".

The Democrats are asking for the investigation to be extended to University apartments as well

Momo Koprivica (Democrats) announced that they will submit to the SDT documentation on the Government's participation in the purchase of apartments owned by the University, in order to expand the investigation. He announced that at the session of October 25, 2018, the Government decided to participate in the purchase of apartments owned by the University.

"Eight apartments were bought for 680 thousand euros. And then five apartments, worth 457, which the Government paid to the University, were allocated to five officials - one MP, two ministers, the President of the Constitutional Court and the Secretary of the Secretariat for Capital Projects. They were given apartments for 81 thousand euros, for which 457 thousand euros were paid. Therefore, they were honored with 337 thousand euros", Koprivica said.

Boris Bogdanović (Democrats) said that in ten years, 25 million euros from the budget were spent on the homes of party and public officials who were given 20.000 square meters of space.