MANS: The Tax and Real Estate Administration hid the registers to help criminals

The Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) sent a letter to the leaders of the Tax Administration and the Real Estate Administration in which, as the organization said, "indicates that their unilateral decision to delete registration numbers from the registers of companies and real estate that are available on the Internet is a violation laws that bring a huge number of citizens and companies into a situation of legal uncertainty, while allowing criminals and corrupt politicians to hide money laundering and illegally acquired assets".

"The letter to Milan Lakićević, director of the Tax Administration of Montenegro, was sent on September 5, and the letter to Dragan Kovačević, director of the Real Estate Administration, on September 6, and those two institutions have not yet submitted any response, but are silently trying to hide the brutal violation of the law. MANS reminded the directors of the Tax and Real Estate Administration that the laws prescribe the obligation of these institutions to provide all citizens with access to their registers and to publish all the data necessary to determine the actual ownership of companies and real estate. Namely, the Law on the State Prime Minister and the Real Estate Cadastre clearly prescribes that data on the registration number be entered in the cadastre, and the same law provides that everyone has the right to inspect the data contained in the real estate cadastre. That law specifies that all the necessary data must be listed in the cadastre, so that there is no danger that the persons who are the owners of the immovable property will be replaced with other individuals", they stated in MANS.

The legal basis for the publication of complete data on company owners, as it is pointed out, is found in the Law on Business Companies, which clearly prescribes the method of application, entry and insight into the data found in the Central Register.

"The law defines that the data and documentation submitted to that register are kept in a single database, and that any person can view, copy or copy the extract from the register and the submitted documentation. Moreover, that law states that data can be accessed through electronic means of communication, including internet presentation. Therefore, the explanation of the Tax Administration that they removed the data based on the minutes of the Personal Data Protection Agency is completely meaningless because the new director of the Tax Administration had to know that the law obliges him to publish the data and to use the legal mechanisms available to him before he decided to silently delete the data", say MANS.

Safet Kalić (Photo: "Vijesti" Archive)

According to this NGO, the deletion of registration numbers means the public and the reliability of the cadastre, i.e. the Central Register of Business Entities, and is in contradiction with the provisions of the Law on State Survey and Real Estate Cadastre, as well as the Law on Business Companies, which mandate that all data on real estate and companies public and available to interested parties.

"This is particularly important due to the fact that in Montenegro there are thousands of persons with the same first and last name, and if there is no possibility of checking by social security numbers or some other unique characteristic, it cannot be determined with certainty which persons they are. Moreover, the interests of individuals whose data are in the Real Estate Cadastre and the Register of Companies are that their publication enables reliability in the protection of their rights but also in the establishment of business and professional relationships with others, except in the case of persons who violate the law. Erasing ID numbers from company and real estate registries can put many honest citizens in a situation where their companies and assets are under the shadow of suspicion just because they have the same name as some fat drug lord, corrupt politician, intelligence officer or criminal. So, for example, there are two Safet Kalićs in Montenegro with different registration numbers, so hiding that data makes it impossible to investigate the companies and assets of a person who is suspected of being one of the biggest drug lords in the Balkans. A similar situation was in the case of the late Dragan Dudić, so only in Kotor there were two people with the same name, but different registration numbers, and only one of them was Fric, Šarić's longtime companion, while the property and real estate of another citizen with the same name which has no connection to cocaine smuggling could be questioned, if the registration numbers were not known. These and similar cases point to the suspicion that corrupt officials in conjunction with organized crime essentially made a decision for the Tax and Real Estate Administration to hide data that is necessary to detect cases of corruption," the statement concludes.

B.A.

There are two Safet Kalićs in Montenegro with different social security numbers, so hiding this information would also make it impossible to investigate the companies and assets of a person who is suspected of being one of the biggest drug lords in the Balkans.