The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption initiated proceedings against three ministers from the Government of Duško Marković, whose mandate ended at the beginning of December 2020.
The Law on the Prevention of Corruption stipulates that a public official who has ceased to hold office is obliged to submit a property certificate to the Agency once a year, within two years after the termination of office.
"Of the members of the 41st Government of Montenegro who no longer hold public office, Srđan Darmanović, Mehmed Zenka and Kemal Purišić did not fulfill the legal obligation to submit reports on income and assets to the Agency once a year in the next two years after the termination of office," the answer states. The agencies asked "Vijesti" which of them did not submit the cards.
The Agency added that they initiated misdemeanor proceedings against the three of them.
Darmanović was the head of Montenegrin diplomacy in the Government, while Zenka and Purišić were the heads of the Ministry of Human Rights and Freedoms, respectively the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare.
While Darmanović did not answer the questions of "Vijesti", Purišić claims that the article of the law "did not specify the deadline for submitting the annual report of a public official whose office has ended for the year 2021, and I am preparing to submit it these days, although it is most logical that the deadline the end of March for the regular delivery of reports".
The regular annual property card is submitted by the end of March for the previous year.
"If there was a deadline of one year from the end of the function, that is. On January 5, 2022, I didn't do it, because I didn't understand that I should do it," Purišić told "Vijesta".
The Democratic Union of Albanians also claims that Zenka fulfilled his legal obligation. In the reply to "Vijesti", it was said that Zenka duly delivered the cartons "21. on December 2020, one month after the termination of office, as well as on January 13, 2022, one year after the termination of office". They add that these cartons are available in the Agency's register.
A large number of members of the 41st Government moved to the parliamentary benches with the then prime minister - MPs became the then Minister of Interior Meluvidn Nuhodžić, Defense Predrag Bošković, Education Damir Šehović, Economy Dragica Sekulić, Public Administration Suzana Pribilović and Sports and Youth Nikola Janović.
In this way, they kept their public functions and were not obliged to submit their records for a year after the termination of their functions.
This was not the case for several other ministers, who in the meantime assumed other positions, such as, for example, the then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Milutin Simović. Simović was the president of Nikšić Municipality.
Among those whose office has ended, and who have submitted a card a year after the end of office, are the former Minister of Finance Darko Radunović, Transport and Maritime Affairs Osman Nurković, Minister of Culture Aleksandar Bogdanović, Minister without portfolio Marija Vučinović...
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