The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) is investigating whether the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazović, violated the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, and spent 43.000 euros more than the legal limit in September of last year.
The agency started the procedure almost a year after the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) submitted a report on the violation of the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns.
According to the director of the MANS Research Center, Dejan Milovac, there is no justification for the public to wait almost a year for the Agency's administrative check. He says that due to lack of work and lack of political will, it is determined that the Prime Minister's Office spent more in the month during which there was an election campaign in several municipalities.
The Law on the Financing of Political Parties prohibits state and local budget spending units, except for the State Election Commission and municipal election commissions, from higher monthly spending compared to the average in the previous six months from the day of the announcement to the day of the election, except in cases of emergency.
The threatened penalty for this offense, according to the Law, is from 5.000 to 20.000 euros.
"Proceedings are being initiated against the Cabinet of the President of the Government of Montenegro, in order to establish a violation of Article 38, paragraph 1. The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption was submitted to the UPI application 02-03-533/2022 dated October 19, 10, with which it was requested to initiate procedure in accordance with the powers prescribed by the Law. The application states that the Cabinet of the Prime Minister had increased spending compared to the legal limit by 2022 percent", according to the decision of the Agency, which is headed by Jelena Perović, from August this year.
MANS specifies in the report that the average spending of Abazović's cabinet in the six months before the election was 152.675 euros, while in September the total spent was 195.981 - 43.305 euros more.
"... Which is a growth of 28 percent and unequivocally indicates a violation of Article 38, paragraph 1 of the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns", according to the NGO's report last year.
In a statement to "Vijesta", Milovac reminded that the MANS initiative was submitted "back in September 2022, after we determined that the cabinet of Prime Minister Dritan Abazović exceeded the monthly spending limit prescribed by law during the pre-election campaign for last year's local elections".
He says that "there is not a single reasonable and justified reason why the public would wait a year for the KAS to conduct the most ordinary administrative check and make a decision in accordance with the law".
"The complete data needed for this check is in the possession of the Agency and only inaction and lack of political will could have caused such a delay in the actions of this institution. This is, unfortunately, a continuation of the disastrous practice of the Agency and its management, who have been persistently degrading the credibility of that institution for years and positioning it as one of the obstacles in the fight against corruption, especially at a high level," Milovac emphasized.
The Prime Minister's Office did not answer the questions about the procedure before the Agency during the technical mandate, but also whether and for what they spent 43.000 more than the legal limit for the month, during which the election campaign in several municipalities was at its peak.
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