A month before last year's parliamentary elections, the Ministry of Economy distributed 5.100 food packages to residents of Rožaj and Gusinje, and declared the information a secret.
The value of the package that was distributed to citizens on that occasion was close to 280.000 euros including VAT, and the amount was paid from the budget reserve.
Under the pretext of the coronavirus pandemic, the entire job was completed in just a few days. The Ministry of Economy, however, found time to declare the documentation secret.
The current Ministry of Economic Development has only recently removed the secrecy mark from the information submitted to the Government, which the "Vijesti" journalist then obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FIA).
However, even that information does not contain data on how aid was distributed to vulnerable families before the last parliamentary elections.
For two months, the then Minister of Economy Dragica Sekulić has not answered the questions of "Vijesti" why the municipalities of Rožaje and Gusinje were specifically chosen, and from whom the request for the delivery of food packages came.
In the declassified document of the former Ministry of Economy, it only states that "the need for assistance has arisen", but without specific information on the basis of whose assessment or request.
On July 23 last year, Sekulić made a decision on the appointment of a three-member commission, whose task was to prepare a tender, as can be seen from the documentation that the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) received under the Law on SPI.
The documentation for the purchase of 5.100 packages with an estimated value of 230.000 euros without VAT was already ready the next day. The packages were supposed to contain flour, sugar, coffee, oil, nuts, dried fruit, dry yeast, rice, dry beef and sudjuk.
The tender was carried out according to an urgent procedure and without publishing a call for tenders.
And classified help
Of the large retail chains to which Sekulić's department submitted tender documents, the cheapest offer was given by "Hard Discount Laković", which four days later will sign a contract worth 271.222 euros, including VAT, with the Ministry of Economy.
"HDL" contracted to deliver packages to Rožaje and Gusinje within three days of signing the contract, but without specifying the exact address to which the groceries need to be delivered.
The information on assistance to the most vulnerable categories of the population in the municipalities of Rožaje and Gusinje was then submitted to the Government of Montenegro, labeled "internal", with a proposal that the Government adopt it, and to charge the Ministry of Finance to pay the amount of 228.590,16 euros (without VAT) from the budget reserve.
"Packages will be distributed to beneficiaries of material security, beneficiaries of care and assistance allowance, as well as beneficiaries of personal disability benefits, through the Center for Social Work. Packages will be distributed to pensioners with the lowest pensions, through the Association of Pensioners, as well as to persons or families who are in self-isolation. The distribution of packages according to the established categories will begin on July 28, at the address of the beneficiaries, through the Center for Social Work, the Association of Pensioners and the mentioned municipalities", according to the announcement from the website of the Government of Montenegro.
At that moment, Rožaje was the fourth municipality in terms of the number of active cases with 120 infected, and Gusinje was ten places lower with 13 infected, according to official data from the Institute of Public Health.
Previously, the National Coordinating Body for Infectious Diseases (NKT) made a decision to ease the measures for these two municipalities.
At the moment when 5.100 packages were distributed, according to the latest official data, there were about 6.600 households in both municipalities, which means that, if each family received one package, almost 80 percent of households received help.
Who asked for help from the Ministry of Economy?
"The municipality of Rožaje did not submit requests for assistance to the Ministry of Economy. Also, there was no direct help from the Ministry of Economy", the office of the President of the Municipality, Rahman Husović, told "Vijesta".
The website of the Municipality of Gusinje mentions information about the allocation of packages. The municipality told "Vijesti" that they did not receive help from the ministries.
The Rožaj Center for Social Work directed a journalist to the report on the work for last year, which does not mention either packages or assistance from the Ministry of Economy. "As far as other assistance is concerned, this Center did not ask for help from government institutions," the answer added.
On the other hand, the Red Cross of Montenegro confirms that they helped distribute aid packages for households from that municipality.
"When it comes to the distribution of aid in Rožaje, colleagues from the Municipal Organization of Rožaje, at the end of July, at the request of the Rožaje Pensioners' Association, helped distribute aid to the elderly. Volunteers of the Rožaje Red Cross supported and were engaged in the distribution of the mentioned aid to people in self-isolation, as well as to elderly people in the area of their municipality," states the reply submitted to "Vijesti".
Director of the Center for Social Work for the municipalities of Plav and Gusinje, Branka Đukić, said that they received "456 humanitarian packages of food and dried meat for distribution" from the Government and that they were distributed on August 4.
She explained that they were intended for beneficiaries of material security of the family, allowance for care and assistance of another person, personal disability allowance, family accommodation-foster care, families in self-isolation due to the pandemic and pensioners with the lowest pension.
"When allocating the package, we made sure that the beneficiaries receive the package on a single basis in order to include a larger number of families in a state of social need," she added.
It remains unclear how the remaining aid packages were distributed, and the fact that the current Ministry of Economic Development declassified the document did not shed light on the situation either.
No basis marked "internal"
Information on the procurement of aid for households threatened by the coronavirus pandemic and the method of payment of close to 280.000 euros from the budget reserve was labeled "internal" by the decision of the Ministry of Economy.
This information contained data on the amount of funds allocated from the state budget, as well as the information that the public procurement was organized according to an urgent procedure and without a public announcement.
The basis for determining the degree of secrecy of the information is the content of the secret information and its importance for the security and defense, foreign, monetary and economic policy of Montenegro.
The law stipulates that the degree of "internal" is determined for data whose disclosure would have harmful consequences for the exercise of the authority's function.
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