"Gifted" apartments quickly cashed in: Two of Bošković's bodyguards sold the properties they received for next to nothing

Five security guards Predrag Bošković (DPS), while he was Minister of Defense, received, in accordance with the decisions of the Government Commission for Housing Issues, which he headed, a total of 254 square meters of apartments for 57.128 euros, or about 225 euros per square meter, and two of them then resold them - one for almost eight times more, and the other for three and a half times more, according to documentation that "Vijesti" had access to.

According to these documents, these are apartments of 45, 47, 49, 50 and 63 square meters in Podgorica and Danilovgrad.

Bošković, who proposed that the housing issue be resolved for his security, told the newspaper yesterday that the decision on the allocation of apartments was not made by the Minister of Defense, but by the Government, in accordance with the procedures in force at the time.

"In the same way, housing issues have been resolved for numerous other employees in the state administration," he said.

Head of the Democrats Parliamentary Club Boris Bogdanovic, who recently opened this case in parliament, told the editorial staff that the party is preparing a legal solution that will finally address the issue of apartments allocated to officials under preferential conditions based on a norm that was recently declared unconstitutional.

"The state must be the state again, and the benefits gained from unconstitutional privileges must be returned or compensated," he said, adding that "there is no revenge, selectivity, or party revanchism here."

According to him, there will only be documents, contracts, the cadastre, the price at which the apartment was acquired, and the value of what the state donated.

The Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional at the beginning of July the provisions of the law on the basis of which hundreds of privileged public officials and employees received apartments or favorable housing loans from the state. Based on the provisions of the Law on the Maintenance of Residential Buildings, the Government, while it was led by the DPS, "housed" many people from the system on privileged terms - judges, prosecutors, ministers, MPs...

The Constitutional Court's decision is also important in the context of the case better known to the public as "Apartments", in which DPS government officials, including Bošković, are being tried on suspicion that, from 2016 to 2020, as members of the Government's Housing Commission, they committed the extended criminal offense of abuse of office. They are accused of making decisions on resolving the housing needs of officials and civil servants contrary to the decision of the executive branch, and thus obtaining material benefits for others. This allegedly caused millions of damage to the state.

The accused former officials were acquitted in the first instance before the Higher Court in Podgorica in May 2025, but the Court of Appeal overturned the verdict in early April of this year and sent the case back for a retrial.

BOUGHT FOR 6.181 EUROS, SOLD FOR 49.000

According to the documentation that "Vijesti" had access to, the Government's Housing Commission made a decision in April 2019 based on which Dejan Glušcevic, one of Bošković's security guards, acquired the right to purchase a 49-square-meter apartment in Podgorica. The purchase contract was concluded with a notary in June 2019, and the purchase price of 6.181 euros (126 euros per square meter) is scheduled to be paid in 60 monthly installments of 103,02 euros each, from July 2019 to June 2024.

The market value of the apartment in the documentation is stated at 29.400 euros, almost five times more than the purchase price.

Less than three years later, in April 2022, Gluščević and his wife sold the apartment for 49.000 euros - almost eight times more than the purchase price - which the buyer, according to a notary's certificate, paid on the same day. The apartment was listed in the sales contract without encumbrances or restrictions. The difference between the purchase and sale prices is 42.819 euros, and the apartment was also sold for 19.600 euros more than the market value stated at the time of purchase.

By decisions of the Government Housing Commission from December 2019, four more security guards in Danilovgrad acquired the right to purchase. The purchase contracts were concluded with a notary in October 2020.

For an apartment of 63 square meters for Vuk Tiodorović, the purchase price was 10.962 euros, in 240 monthly installments of 55,36 euros each (repayment period 20 years). According to a confirmation from the State Property Administration from December 2024, the price was paid in full, well before the deadline.

According to the decision of the Government Commission from October 2020, for an apartment Rade Rabrenović of 50 square meters, the purchase price was 7.225 euros, or 144,5 euros per square meter, while the market value was not stated.

He got a 47 square meter apartment Ivan Madžgalj for 8.460 euros, and he was registered as the owner by a decision of the Real Estate Administration from October 2020. Already in April 2021, less than six months later, Madžgalj sold the apartment for 30.000 euros, which is three and a half times more than the purchase price. The market price was not stated.

Radovan Cebalovic According to the decision of the Government Commission from October 2020, he paid 24,3 thousand euros for a 45 square meter apartment in Danilovgrad, or 540 euros per square meter. The market price was also not specified.

According to Monstat data, for the fourth quarter of 2019, the average price per square meter of a newly built apartment in the central region (which includes Danilovgrad) was 694 euros per square meter.

BOŠKOVIĆ: THE GOVERNMENT WAS THE LAST

Bošković led the Ministry of Defense from November 2016 to December 2020. All decisions of the Government's Housing Commission, based on which members of his security forces purchased apartments, were made while he was minister.

Bošković told "Vijesti" that it is true that he proposed members of the security service to resolve the housing issue.

"I considered this to be justified, given the nature of the work they performed, the responsibility they carried, their housing and family circumstances, as well as the fact that they had served the state of Montenegro professionally and dedicatedly for years. If I had not considered that there were justified reasons for this, I would not have proposed them," he said.

However, as he added, the final decision was not made by the minister, but by the Government.

Boris Bogdanović points out that the fact that a total of 57.128 euros was paid for the apartments of five members of Bošković's security forces means that the average price was around 225 euros per square meter.

"Not 50 years ago. Not in some abandoned village. But for apartments provided by the state to people who were in favor of the then government," he said.

As he said, it is particularly interesting what happened to the allocated apartments afterwards, emphasizing that some were sold.

"And then they ask us why we are raising the issue of state-owned apartments. We are raising it because state property was not a private housing cooperative of one party. We are raising it because it is not normal for someone who already has an apartment, a house, three apartments, two houses or hundreds of thousands of euros in their account to be declared housing vulnerable, while people who work for a living wage remain tenants," said the head of the Democrats parliamentary group.

Predrag Bošković emphasized that whether apartments were allocated legally cannot be determined by political parties through statements, but only by the competent state institutions.

"As far as I know, the institutions have already addressed this issue and made appropriate decisions," he reminded.

Regarding the allegations that one of the users later sold the apartment, he says that he did not participate in that decision, nor can he be held responsible for the private disposal of the property after its legal acquisition.

"Potential sales restrictions and compliance with contractual obligations are also issues for the competent authorities, not political judgments," Bošković underlined.

He added that he therefore does not accept the attempt to attribute responsibility to him for decisions he did not make.

"Political parties have the right to ask questions and criticize, but they do not have the right to simultaneously assume the roles of prosecutor and judge. I understand that the Democrats would like to decide both guilt and sentence, but I sincerely hope that the times of their political father are over." Slobodan Milosevic", in which party courts were above institutions, are long behind us," Bošković stated.

SPLIT AROUND 20.000 SQUARES

Boris Bogdanović says that in ten years, through the system of preferential allocation of apartments, around 20.000 square meters of residential space have been distributed, the current value of which, he claims, is between 50 and 100 million euros.

He cited the example of nine high-ranking officials who bought a total of 833 square meters for 116.000 euros.

"So, nine people, 833 square meters, an average of about 139 euros per square meter. One of them gets 62 square meters for about 6.000 euros, and then sells it for about 60.000. Ten times more expensive," he pointed out.

Bogdanović recalled the case of the former President of the Constitutional Court who had a house and an apartment, and the state allocated him another apartment of 109 square meters.

"We had a special state prosecutor who didn't like a state-owned apartment because it had a too-large terrace, so he was given another one by secret decision, measuring 89 square meters, with a smaller terrace and larger interior space. We had a minister of culture who has a 187 square meter apartment, whose wife has 222 square meters of office space, but the state still concludes that he still lacks 75 square meters for, mind you, 'artistic creativity'," the source said.

He also recalls the case of a director "with three apartments, two houses and more than 370.000 euros in savings", for whom the state "found the only thing he obviously didn't have yet - a state-owned apartment on favorable terms".

"We had the deputy mayor's secretary and the mayor's driver receive apartments as deserving citizens of Podgorica," Bogdanović added.

That a large number of public officials and civil servants were "housed" was revealed in 2019, when the then DPS government published part of the list of those who received apartments or favorable housing loans from the state.

At the end of 2022, articles on the basis of which officials received apartments and loans were deleted from the regulations on the maintenance of residential buildings, and the Constitutional Court found that these provisions were unconstitutional while they were in force.