Perović: We do everything legally, great pressure on the work of the Agency

Director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK), Jelena Perović, said that the pressure on their work is extremely high, but that they resist it and that everything they do is done legally.

"Vijesti" announced on Saturday that the director and her deputy traveled more than 6.800 kilometers in official cars in September last year alone, which is a mileage that corresponds to the road from Podgorica to, for example, the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Perović said that the consumption of fuel and the use of official vehicles, which were also used during public holidays and weekends, were "irrelevant".

"In relation to the kilometers traveled, in relation to the use of an official vehicle, you should check with the head of the fleet. These are so irrelevant things for the rule of law and for everything we do. It is completely irrelevant for us," said Perović. to a question from TV News, at a working breakfast with journalists.

To the second question, whether the Agency will initiate proceedings to determine whether the representative of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights, Valentina Pavličić, violated the Law on Prevention of Corruption, Perović said that she would. The Research Center of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) previously announced that Pavličić did not report to the institutions that her husband was the owner of an offshore company registered on Karibimaoja, which also owned a motor vessel, as well as a business transaction in which she sold to the company "Bemaks".

In a written reply to MANS, Pavličić claims that her husband did not use the mentioned company for other jobs, but that it was only used for the registration of vessels because Montenegro did not have its own vessel registry at that time. The director also said that they applied anti-corruption laws consistently and indiscriminately, implementing a policy of zero tolerance for corruption, and at the same time took steps towards improving the legislative framework.

She mentioned that last year elections were held in 15 cities and municipalities. A special challenge for the Agency was the unusually long pre-election campaign - the obligations, prohibitions and restrictions prescribed by the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns were applied throughout the country from April 21 to October 23.

"Due to violations of the law, we launched a total of 439 misdemeanor proceedings - 67 percent more compared to the previous five years of work in total. Our actions were also recognized by the citizens - in the public opinion poll, which we conducted at the end of last year, cumulatively 70,8 percent of the respondents answered that the Agency contributed to strengthening the transparency of the use of public resources and financing of political entities during election campaigns," she said.

According to her, the fact that 188 whistleblower reports were submitted to the Agency last year, the most since 2016, can testify to the trust of citizens.

The director also had a message for media representatives:

"I would ask the representatives of the media to be more careful when transmitting information, more precisely semi-information and deliberately disseminating false information, directed against the Agency, and that, as stated in the Code of Journalists of Montenegro, take appropriate measures to verify the accuracy of such allegations. are presented not in the interest of the public interest, but because of the importance and specific weight of certain cases that our institution deals with. My attempt to compromise will not make the written evidence that we have come up with, which are the only relevant ones for the Agency's decision-making, disappear," stated Perović.

The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption is, unfortunately, one of the rare bright spots in the fight against corruption and Chapter 23, said Council President Momčilo Radulović at the working breakfast.

"Now we have reached the ceiling in reforms, because everything that the Agency could do, it has already done in terms of the law," he said, adding that now MPs must adopt legal changes so that it can act even more strongly.

He also said that the working group for creating the list of public officials will soon finish its work. "It is interesting that some people who decide on important issues are not on that list. We will do our best to make them," he said.