The Balkan Research Network - Montenegro today sent the members of the Council of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the acting director of that institution, Dušan Drakić, an initiative to improve control in the area of ownership of public officials over cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, in response to the submission of annual reports of public officials for 2024.
The executive director of BIRN Montenegro Vuk Maraš says that, based on the analysis of property records of public officials carried out by that organization, it is clear that "there is virtually no" publicly available information on the value of property held by public officials in digital form.
Of the six cases they analyzed, as he said, only in the case of the Deputy Prime Minister Niko Đeljošaj was it possible to accurately determine the value of the assets, while in all other cases essential information was missing, such as the types of cryptocurrencies they owned or the amounts.
On the other hand, Maraš points out, in the cases of Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, his chief of staff Branko Krvavac, as well as ministers Slaven Radunović and Admir Šahmanović, it is not possible to determine which cryptocurrencies they own or what amount of certain cryptocurrencies they have. Therefore, he explains, it is impossible to determine the market value of the digital assets of those public officials. The same is the case with MP Ilir Čapuni, adds Maraš, who did mention the type of crypto assets he owns, but not its amount.
"Keeping in mind that the possession of cryptocurrencies is becoming more and more popular among public officials, and that at the same time it is a very useful mechanism for concealing assets, we invite the ASK Council to organize a thematic session with the employees of the Agency and other interested entities as soon as possible, in order to this area was improved before the deadline for submitting new, regular, annual reports on the income and assets of public officials," Maraš announced.
He called on the Agency to adopt a set of recommendations, in order to establish adequate control in that area:
"In the forms for reporting income and assets, it is necessary to set aside a special section 'digital assets' in which the type, name, quantity and current market value of the crypto-assets owned by officials should be specified," states one of the recommendations.
Also, he adds, along with reports on income and assets, when officials report crypto assets, they need to submit statements from all the digital wallets they own (the so-called wallet).
"For all officials who reported ownership of cryptocurrencies, it is necessary to request statements from all digital wallets for all periods when they reported ownership of cryptocurrencies, in order to determine whether the value of their assets changed by more than 5.000 or 10.000 euros per old or new the Law, that is, whether they violated the Law on Prevention of Corruption," says Maraš.
It is also proposed to initiate procedures in accordance with the law for all officials who are found to have inadequately reported digital assets.
It was also suggested that, after the completion of those procedures, an overview of the types, types, quantity and value of digital assets owned by public officials in Montenegro should be published.
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