One of the candidates for the position of executive director of the Montenegrin Electricity Market Operator (COTEE) and former Minister of Capital Investments, Mladen Bojanić, submitted an initiative to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK) to initiate a review of the appointment procedure of the current acting executive director of COTEE, Mersudin Gredić.
In the initiative, which Bojanić published on the social network Iks, he states that he is addressing the ASK in order to prevent political and material corruption, asking that institution to review the procedure for appointing the COTEE executive director, that is, to stop the proposals of the Ministry of Energy and Mining to the Government to issue consent to Mersudin Gredić for the appointment to the position of executive director, and in return to more than triple the monthly fees of the members of the COTEE Board of Directors.
Last week, Vijesti wrote that, according to sources, it was proposed to the Ministry of Energy and Mining that if the Government of Montenegro gives its consent, the executive director of COTEE will be Mersudin Gredić, and the members of the Board of Directors of that state-owned company - Maksim Vučinić, Đorđije Ostojić and Nermin Škretović - will receive up to three times higher remuneration.
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Bojanić recalled that in April this year, the Labor Inspectorate determined that Gredić had been appointed to the position of executive director illegally, without a competition. The Board of Directors dismissed him and appointed him acting director.
"The appointment procedure had to be aligned with the COTEE Statute, and a public competition was announced on June 18, 2025. It is very indicative of political corruption that Mersudin Gredić, the current acting director of COTEE, Admir Šahmanović, Minister of Energy and Mining, Ervin Ibrahimović, president of the Bosniak Party and current Deputy Prime Minister, and minister of the relevant ministry at the time of Gredić's illegal appointment, as well as Nermin Škretović, former president and now member of the Board of Directors of COTEE, are all high-ranking officials of the Bosniak Party.
"An additional argument related to political, but also material corruption lies in the fact that the current procedure for appointing Mersudin Gredić as executive director for a four-year term, in addition to the illegality in the process of selecting the best candidate in the competition, is accompanied by a decision to unjustifiably increase the current monthly fees for members of the COTTA Board of Directors by more than three times (Maksim Vučinić from ZBCG, president, Nermin Škretović from BS, Đorđije Ostojić from PES, members), so it is easy to conclude that this is corruption on the part of both the persons who directly decide on this election and appointment, and those whose political support is necessary to put this corrupt trade into practice," Bojanić's address to the members of the ASK Council states.
He said that he expects them to decisively and without delay influence the immediate halt of the process of issuing the Government's consent to the appointment of the COTEE Executive Director, as well as the planned, drastic and, as he said, undeserved increase in remuneration for members of the Board of Directors.
"Investigate the case thoroughly and take all legal measures to prevent corruption, in accordance with the name of your institution. I believe that you are fully aware that any of your indecisive actions would cause irreparable damage, both for the company and for the state of Montenegro," Bojanić concluded.
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