The Board of Directors of the Regulatory Agency for Energy and Regulated Utilities (REGAGEN) has not responded to an employee's letter for months Momira Škopje in which he proposed that members of that body return more than 58.000 euros in variable allowances they received from the beginning of 2018 to the end of 2023, after the Anti-Corruption Agency determined that these salary supplements were paid illegally.
Even the Agency's director is not responding to his proposal to initiate a damage compensation procedure and file a criminal complaint. Igor Telebak, and Škopelja did not receive a reaction from the parliamentary Anti-Corruption Committee, which informed him about the ASK decisions.
REGAGEN did not respond to questions from "Vijesti". The editorial team did not receive any answers from the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro either.
At the end of November last year, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption issued a decision according to which the President of the REGAGEN Board Branislav Prelevic has been receiving illegal salary supplements for years. A few days later, the same decision was made for a current and former member of that body Miroslav Vučević i Dragutin Martinović.
In its decisions for these officials, the ASK emphasized that they violated the Law on the Prevention of Corruption because they received salary supplements based on several regulations that they adopted, or voted on "without exception, without first requesting the opinion of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, even though they had a legal obligation to do so."
"Return the illegally obtained benefit yourself"
"Based on the data from the ASK website on the amounts of the income variable, it can be concluded that by applying the aforementioned regulations in the period from the beginning of 2018 to the end of 2023, you have realized a total of 58.654 euros in illegally acquired property gains, namely Branislav Prelević - 23,839, Miroslav Vukčević 23,054 and Dragutin Martinović 11,761 euros. Given that the previous calculation does not include 2024, your illegally acquired property gains have probably reached the amount of 70.000 euros by now. By acting in this way, in addition to the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, you have also committed criminal offenses under Articles 416 - abuse of official position and 417 - negligent work in the service of the Criminal Code of Montenegro," states the proposal for the return of illegally acquired property, which Škopelja sent to Prelević and Vukčević, with a request to forward the letter to Martinović, who retired in the meantime.
Škopelja reminds that Article 113 of the Criminal Code stipulates that "no one may retain material gain obtained through an unlawful act that is defined by law as a criminal offense", and that the Law on the Prevention of Corruption stipulates that if, as a result of a violation of this regulation, "damage is caused to a legal or natural person, that person shall exercise the right to compensation for damage by filing a lawsuit in civil proceedings with the competent court".
"In the event that you do not voluntarily return the illegally obtained profit, the Executive Director of the Agency would, pursuant to the cited provision of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, have to initiate proceedings for compensation of damages, because by failing to do so, he would also have committed the previously cited criminal offenses. Therefore, I hereby suggest that you return the illegally obtained property gain to the Agency yourself and inform the Agency's employees about it," Škopelja stated in a letter, which "Vijesti" has access to.
Telebak to report abuse
That employee told the REGAGEN director in early February that he had previously informed the Board about potential criminal acts.
"Therefore, I propose that, pursuant to Articles 19, paragraph 2 and 20, paragraph 1 of the Statute, as the person responsible for financial operations, as well as for representing and presenting the Agency, pursuant to Article 19, paragraph 4 of the Statute, you immediately inform the aforementioned persons that such conduct is illegal and that they have an obligation to return illegally acquired profits on several grounds," Škopelja said in a letter to Telebak.
He also reminds him that the Energy Law stipulates that "the president and members of the Agency's Board, the executive director, the deputy executive director and employees of the Agency shall exercise their rights and obligations arising from employment in accordance with general labor regulations."
“…Which means that the members of the Board should primarily compensate the Agency for the damage in accordance with the Labor Law. This means that if within a reasonable period of time (three to five days) the aforementioned persons do not respond when and how they will return the illegally obtained profit, you are obliged, pursuant to Article 158, paragraph 5 of the Labor Law, to form a commission that will determine 'the existence of the damage, its amount, the circumstances under which it occurred, who caused the damage and how it is compensated'. If they do not act on that notification or the work of the Commission does not yield results for any reason, you are obliged to initiate proceedings for compensation of damage before the Basic Court in Podgorica, including the applicable interest," Škopelja suggested to the executive director.
He also emphasized that, regardless of the collection of damages, Telebak is obliged to file criminal charges against the Board members for negligent work and abuse of position.
"If you don't do it, someone else can do it, but they can also extend the criminal report to you, also for negligent work, but also for concealing a criminal offense," emphasizes Škopelja. He also reminded Telebak that "according to the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, he is also obliged to propose to the Board the deletion of illegal provisions of the Rules on the conditions and manner of realizing the variable part of the salary..."
New Committee pending
Škopelja was recently fined 20 percent of his salary at REGAGEN for sending a letter to MPs, members of the Legislative and Economic Committees, with objections to the Energy Bill.
He then confirmed to "Vijesti" that he had been punished for the letter, and that he had contacted the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution about the decision. He said that he did not deny that he had sent the letter to the deputies, but that he had done so as a citizen and that he believed that this could not be a basis for punishment, and that the information presented in that letter was not a secret, but had been published in the Agency's reports on its website and in the Official Gazette.
The Administrative Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro has not yet announced whether it will renew the competition for the appointment of the president and two members of REGAGEN, after the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro officially announced that the competition needs to be harmonized with European directives and re-announced.
Previously, this working body, following a previously completed competition, proposed to the Assembly Veljko Vasiljević for the position of Committee President, and Milica Petrović-Simonović and Škopelja for the positions of members. This proposal has been in the Assembly procedure since April 10th.
The Ministry of Energy and Mining announced yesterday that it is closely monitoring the process of selecting members of the REGAGEN Board. The ministry called on MPs to "responsibly support reforms in accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission."
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