The letters of Prime Minister Dritan Abazović and a certain number of ministers of the 43rd Government of Montenegro informing the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) about the actions they will take do not have legal consequences in terms of conducting procedures to determine incompatible functions, the Agency announced.
KAS spoke out because of, as they said, certain misinterpreted information and said that resignation from one of the public positions is submitted to the institution, i.e. the body that appoints, elects or appoints a public official, or in another way if it is provided for by a special law.
The legal deadline by which deputies of the new convocation, in accordance with the Law on Prevention of Corruption, had to resign from their positions in the executive branch or return their parliamentary mandates expired on Monday.
Abazović said that in his letter to the director of ASK, Jelena Perović, he stated that he is obliged to perform the function of the coordinator of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MVP) until the formation of the new government, until which time, he said, he will refrain from exercising his parliamentary functions, and he will not receive the parliamentary salary.
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"The Agency has the competence to determine the incompatibility of public functions and to initiate proceedings against public officials who perform two or more incompatible public functions. It is not within the competence of the Agency to determine the termination of public office for any public official, nor is any public official obliged to submit his resignation to the Agency to any of the functions. The Agency must be notified of the resignation either by the government body in which the public official performs the function or by the public official himself," the ASK statement states.
They point out that the Agency initiates misdemeanor proceedings before the competent misdemeanor courts against public officials who perform incompatible functions.
"The misdemeanor court in misdemeanor proceedings determines whether there has been a violation of legal provisions and can impose a sanction of 500 to 2.000 euros".
ASK adds that they repeat the position of the Agency, which has been expressed several times, that it is necessary to pass the Law on Government and the Law on Parliament, which would regulate the legal situation regarding ministers and deputies with two incompatible public functions in a more appropriate way than it is now.
"Finally, we ask the media to convey the information they receive from the Agency faithfully, in the spirit of the journalistic code, and not to put it in the wrong context, so that together we can serve the public interest in public information," the announcement concludes.
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