The Ministry of Finance annulled the decision of the Tax Administration on the forced collection of a fine that it had to pay to the Municipality of Kotor due to non-execution of the order of the Directorate for Inspection Affairs (UIP) to remove the illegally placed memorial board in Morinje.
It is about a memorial plaque that, on October 10, 2022, bypassing the legal procedure, without a decision of the Government, i.e. without the necessary consent of the Municipality of Kotor, on the premises of the former military warehouse Morinj, was placed by the then Ministers of Foreign Affairs Ranko Krivokapic (SDP) and defense Rasko Konjević (SDP) with Croatian colleagues, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman (HDZ) and Minister of Croatian Veterans Tom Medved (HDZ). The then Montenegrin minister without portfolio gave his support at the unveiling ceremony of the memorial plaque Adrian Vuksanovic (HGI).
The way in which the text of the memorial plaque treats the historical circumstances of 1991, when the state of Montenegro participated in the attacks on Croatia in the area of Konavle and Dubrovnik, has also been criticized by the public. In Morinje, the so-called Collection center for prisoners of war from the Dubrovnik battlefield.
"Vijesti" had access to the decision of the Ministry of Finance on the annulment of the decision on the forced collection of a fine amounting to 5.610 euros, adopted on April 10 following an appeal by the Municipality of Kotor, and signed by the head of the Directorate for Second-Level Tax and Customs Procedure Nikola Kandić.
In that document, it is stated that the Municipality of Kotor appealed against the decision of the Tax Administration, pointing out that the local administration "was not able to implement the inspection order due to a number of circumstances".
Acting on the appeal of the Municipality of Kotor, the Ministry of Finance annulled the decision on forced collection and sent the case back to the Tax Administration for re-procedure and decision-making. It was established, it is written in the explanation, that the Tax Administration in this procedure violated the Law on Tax Administration "because, among other things, a valid executive order for the initiation of compulsory collection proceedings was not specified", as well as the Law on Administrative Procedure "which obliges the first-instance authority to, when conducting of the first-instance procedure they follow the rules prescribed by the mentioned provisions, which was not done in the first-instance procedure".
"In the renewed procedure, the first-instance authority (Tax Administration) will take into account the given objections, evaluate the other appeals, with the mandatory participation of the appellant (Kotor Municipality) and make a new, proper and legally-based decision," reads the decision of the Directorate for Second-Instance Tax and customs procedure of the Ministry of Finance.
On October 18, 2022, the UIP passed a decision on the removal of the memorial plaque and obliged the Municipality of Kotor to implement it. However, the intervention of the Communal Inspection and the Kotor Communal Police was already prevented on October 24 by the Army of Montenegro, whose members have been guarding the until then completely abandoned former military facility in Morinje and not allowing anyone to enter its circle.
The soldiers who guard the locked gate at the entrance to the complex throughout the day do so on the verbal orders of their superiors in the chain of command, at the top of which is the current Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Brigadier General Zoran Lazarevic. The order according to which uniformed and armed soldiers must secure the abandoned former military facility 24 hours a day, where there is no electricity, water, or basic living conditions, was issued when Raško Konjević was the head of the Ministry of Defense, but it has not been repealed to this day, even though since then, two more ministers of defense have changed - acting Filip Adzic (GP URA) and current minister Dragan Krapović (Democrats).
Since the plaque was not removed, the UIP issued a decision on January 24, 2023 to fine the Municipality of Kotor, although its services are prevented by the Army from carrying out the inspection order. The decision on fines was also passed for the mayor of Kotor Vladimir Jokić (Democrats) as a responsible person in the Municipality. In September of last year, the decisions became enforceable, so the UIP started the forced collection process.
However, Jokić maintained that neither he nor the Municipality will pay "unjust fines". He previously said that he was outraged by this behavior of the UIP, which did not sanction the real culprits for not allowing the board to be removed.
"The state in the person of the three then ministers in the government, without the knowledge of the local administration and against the law, first in October 2022 placed a memorial plaque in Morinje, and then the same state in the person of the UIP a few days later, passed a decision on the removal of the illegally placed memorial - marks and ordered the Municipality of Kotor to put it into practice and remove the plaque," said Jokić.
Then, as he added, the same state, in the guise of the Army, demanded that the plaque not be removed and repeatedly prevented the Communal Inspection and the Communal Police of the Municipality of Kotor from implementing the decision of the UIP.
Jokić stated that this shows all the absurdity of this situation in which we have a systematic violation of the law and the rule of law by the state and its organs, and the bill for this is to be made out to someone who is not guilty of anything.
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