The government is not waiting for the outcome of the criminal proceedings against Andrej Nedović in the Higher State Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of abuse of official position and obtaining millions of benefits for a private company, and already intends to soon appoint him as a close associate of the Minister of Health Vojislav Šimun.
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", Nedović was proposed by Šimun as the acting director of the Directorate for International Cooperation, Health Tourism and Economics, and the Government Commission for Personnel and Administrative Issues accepted it without additional intervention.
At this moment, there are no legal obstacles to Nedović being appointed to that position, but the question arises whether it is responsible towards citizens not to wait for the decision of the judicial authorities.
Nedović was in custody in mid-2023, and the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) said at the time that Nedović - the former director of the Finance Sector at the Environmental Protection Fund, as well as his then superior, the director of that institution, Jovan Martinović, are suspected of obtaining illegal benefits of over 20 million euros from the company "Uniprom", owned by Veselin Pejović.
The SDT told "Vijesti" yesterday that "the criminal case against Nedović was submitted to the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica as the one with actual jurisdiction, following amendments to the Law on the Special State Prosecutor's Office and the Law on Courts, in June last year."
Nedović's defense attorney, lawyer Ivan Despotović He said that he was aware that the case was in the Higher State Prosecutor's Office and that he "hoped for a quick decision - suspension or indictment."
Nedović and Martinović, by decision of the investigating judge of the Higher Court, were in custody from mid-April to mid-July 2023.
BY 2021, CRIMINAL PROCEDURE WILL BE AN ELIMINATING FACTOR
Šimun's proposal, the editorial office was told, states that the Government should appoint Nedović in accordance with the new Regulation on the Internal Organization and Systematization of the Ministry of Health, which was adopted and entered into force in December last year.
Along with the proposal, his biography was submitted, stating that he was a consultant to Odović in the first half of 2024, that he was a development manager at the company "Glovo", and that he was also the head of the Environmental Protection Fund from September 2020 until his arrest in April 2023.
According to the editorial office, the proposal was accompanied by confirmation from the Ministry of Justice that Nedović had no previous convictions, as well as the opinion of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption that he was not in a conflict of interest.
The Law on Civil Servants and Employees stipulates that a person who has been convicted by a final and binding decision of a criminal offense that makes him or her unworthy of working in a state body cannot be admitted to public service.
It also provides for the termination of employment if a security measure or protective measure is imposed on him for a period longer than six months, which requires him to be absent from work - on the day the measure begins to be applied.
According to the previous Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, which was in force until February 2021, a person against whom criminal proceedings had not been initiated ex officio could not enter into an employment relationship with a state body.
CONSULTED WITH ODOVIC
Nedović's appointment to the Ministry of Health will not be his first engagement in state administration after his release from detention in the summer of 2023 - at the end of that year he was engaged as a consultant in the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, during the mandate of Janko Odović.
"Vijesti" recently, through the application of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector "Ask Institutions", obtained data relating to contracts for work concluded by the Ministry headed by Odović, including a consulting contract with Nedović.
Odović signed a contract with Nedović to provide consulting services at the end of December 2023, and his work was fixed for half a year - until June 26, 2024.
"The Client assigns, and the Consultant undertakes, to perform, for the needs of the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, tasks related to the promotion of projects implemented by the Ministry, advisory services in proposing methods of project implementation and improving international cooperation, advising the Minister and, if necessary, other members of management on activities related to projects and international cooperation, as well as participation in the implementation of other tasks not provided for in the job description established by the Regulation on Internal Organization and Systematization of the Ministry," the contract states.
Nedović received 1.500 euros per month for these jobs, which is 9.000 euros over the duration of the contract.
HOW “UNIPROM” GOT MONEY
In order to limit the emissions of harmful gases from the biggest environmental polluters (Thermal Power Plant, KAP and Iron Works), the former DPS government adopted the Law on Protection from the Negative Impacts of Climate Change in December 2019.
The then Government of Duško Marković, by decree, set quotas for 2020 and 2021 on carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere for TPPs, which operate within EPCG, and the Aluminum Plant.
Nedović earned 9.000 euros in six months at the Ministry, which was headed by Janko Odović until July last year, with whom he signed a consulting contract.
The amount of allowed quantities of emitted gases was the same for both companies, however, KAP emitted much less, and TE much more than the quota. Therefore, KAP had a surplus of allocated emission quotas, and TE had a deficit. So the then management of EPCG and Uniprom "found" a solution - for EPCG to buy those emissions worth 17 million euros from them, or for that amount to receive free electricity for the needs of KAP.
CIN-CG previously reported that the amount of emission credits granted to KAP was disproportionate and based on projections from the period 2005 to 2008, when record aluminum production was reached, along with the consumption of huge amounts of fuel oil, which has since been replaced by gas.
Special prosecutors suspected Nedović and Martinović of having, based on unrealistic estimates of the quantities of harmful gases emitted into the air, enabled the transfer of huge amounts of money from the cash register of the Electric Power Company (EPCG) to the former Aluminum Plant Podgorica, owned by "Uniprom".
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