A notification is enough for ASK

At the end of last year, Deputy Prime Minister Milutin Simović registered a 150-square-meter apartment in his name that he had traded the year before. Although the Law on the Prevention of Corruption stipulates that any major increase in property must be reported to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption with a special property record, in his case there is no such record. Simović points out that he reported everything correctly, and the Agency also agrees with him.

Article 23 of the Law stipulates that a public official is obliged to submit a regular annual property card for the previous year by the end of March. In addition to the regular annual one, he is also obliged to submit extraordinary property certificates in the meantime in case of any increase in the value of property over 5.000 euros, no more than one month from the day of its increase. In this case, the three-room apartment is mentioned for the first time in the regular annual property register for 2018. At that moment, the apartment was not registered to him. In the meantime, it is.

The Agency previously announced that the increase in property must be reported within 30 days from the date of registration of the property. This means that in the case of Simović, the card should be delivered by mid-November.

"My wife and I informed the Agency in a timely manner about the change that is the subject of your interest, which you can take a direct look at with them," Simović told "Vijesti".

His wife, Ljiljana Simović, is the assistant minister of labor and social welfare, which means that she also has the same legal obligations regarding registration as he does.

The Agency did not respond to the request of "Vijesti" to inspect the submitted documentation. However, they previously announced that the Simovićs had duly fulfilled their legal obligation. "And within the legal deadline, they submitted their regular annual reports on income and assets for 2018 to the Agency. In both of the aforementioned reports on income and assets, they submitted data on immovable assets - a three-room apartment with a square footage of 150 square meters," the answer states.

The Agency adds that everything is over with the notification.

"Additionally, in October 2019, Milutin Simović submitted to the Agency a notification and a request to supplement the property record in question, that the Real Estate Administration completed the registration of the apartment that was registered in the property record of the appointed public official with an indication that the registration of that immovable property is in the process. The agency performed an administrative and technical check of the report on the income and assets of the appointed official, and determined that it does not contain any deviations".

"Vijesti" previously announced that, as can be seen from property records and Government documents, before she received a 40.000 euro housing loan from the Government at the beginning of last year under favorable conditions, Simović signed over a house of over 200 square meters to her minor daughter.

Simović then told "Vijesta" that he bought the three-room apartment with a bank mortgage loan, precisely with the participation of the loan received by his wife.