More than 200 former officials and employees of state institutions and bodies of all three branches of government, who from 2004 to 2020 received either an apartment or a loan on favorable terms from the Government of Montenegro, are not paying their obligations to the state, even though they amount to monthly amounts ranging from 30 to 95 euros.
According to information from "Vijesti", there are 179 loans on favorable terms in amounts ranging from 15.000 to 40.000 euros, as well as 25 people who are not paying their obligations under the contract for the purchase of an apartment on favorable terms.
The State Property Administration, headed by Koča Đurišić, confirmed to "Vijesti" that more than 200 people are not repaying their loan installments regularly or have not paid the agreed amount for the purchase of an apartment on favorable terms.
"We have sent the documentation to the Office of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro for further action," the Administration responded to the editorial staff.
The Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro, in her answers to questions from "Vijesti", specified that these are "a total of 204 legal cases".
"It is true that the State Property Administration, for the second time now, has submitted to the Protector for further action documentation related to loan repayment contracts and contracts for the purchase and sale of apartments under favorable conditions. The cases have been assigned for action as a priority. The plan is to initiate proceedings to collect debts from loans, but to first warn the beneficiaries to settle the amount owed voluntarily," said Ćirović.
She emphasized that she cannot currently specify the total amount that the state has paid to former officials and employees in this way, but "not even the part of the amount that the beneficiaries are obliged to return."
Copies of “inadmissible evidence”
Judge of the Specialized Department of the Higher Court in Podgorica Vesna Kovačević recently, in a first-instance verdict, acquitted all defendants in the “Apartments” case.
The indictment charged the members of the Commission for Resolving Housing Issues of the Government of Montenegro with abuse of official position in the period from 2016 to 2020.
An indictment has been filed against Predrag Bošković, Budimir the apprentice, Suad Numanovića, Sanje Vlahovic, Ivan Brajović, Drazen Miličković, Damir Šehović, Dragice Sekulić, Osman Nurković, Suzana Pribilović, Jelena Radonjic i Aleksandar Jovićević, due to the existence of reasonable suspicion that in the period from 2016 to 2020, as members of the Housing Commission of the Government of Montenegro, they, as co-perpetrators, committed the extended criminal offense of abuse of official position, which is punishable by a prison sentence of two to 12 years.
They were accused of having, contrary to the Decision on the method and criteria for resolving the housing needs of officials, according to which a loan for improving housing conditions could not exceed 15.000 euros, awarded amounts between 17.500 and 40.000 euros to more than 100 officials and their associates, thus obtaining benefits for them and causing damage to the Montenegrin budget of 2.604,740,59 euros.
In her explanation of the acquittal, Kovačević said that the evidence submitted as photocopies was inadmissible to the court. She said that the photocopies were uncertified.
Special State Prosecutor Vukas Radonjic said that he considers the acquittal in the "Apartments" case to be completely illegal and irregular. He announced that the SDT will file an appeal.
"We consider the verdict to be completely illegal and irregular. We cannot accept the arguments given by the trial panel, which is that the Government, not the Commission, decided on the conclusions in the granting of loans for improving housing conditions, because the Government only gave its consent to the Commission's decisions. The regulation stipulates that the Commission decides, that the Commission is the decision-making body," Radonjić emphasized at the time.
Defense attorney for the defendant Predrag Bošković, attorney Mikhail Volkov claimed that the “Apartments” case was a political process, which Radonjić denied. In 2017, Volkov, as an official of the then Ministry of Defense, received a 75 square meter apartment on favorable terms.
Archive destroyed, cost of "extravagance" 25 million
The government began the practice of favorable "care" for personnel more than two decades ago.
After the change of government in August 2020, the newly formed National High-Level Anti-Corruption Council formed an expert team that tried to track down who received what and how much money to address the housing issue.
The then head of the expert team Vanja Ćalović Marković in April 2021, she warned that the government's archive on the allocation of apartments and housing loans on preferential terms had been "largely destroyed."
She then pointed out that from 2011 to 2021, at least 580 people who worked in state bodies received this type of assistance from the state treasury, of which at least 175 held public positions.
Although the expert team was unable to find all the documentation at the time, the final balance of the "extravagance" was determined - in those ten years alone, at least 25 million euros were taken from the state budget and around 20.000 square meters of housing space were allocated to officials and deserving employees in the state administration.
Among the officials were judges and prosecutors, including some who are now being tried on various grounds - Vesna Medenica, Blaž Jovanić, Saša Čađenović...
Two-bedroom apartments for several thousand euros or five-figure loans that are repaid in installments of around thirty euros are the result of the 2014 Decision on the Method and Criteria for Solving the Housing Needs of Officials, signed by then-Prime Minister Milo Đukanović.
For example, according to officially published data at the time, at the beginning of 2018, the Government approved several housing loans to employees and officials of certain departments, worth between 20.000 and 40.000 euros and with monthly installments ranging from 30,3 to 97,22 euros.
This is just one of the benefits, along with the loan being repaid in installments for up to 20 years and a reduction in the loan amount of five percent for each full year of service and the age of the building of at least three percent, and up to a maximum of 80 percent of its amount.
This means that if an employee with fifteen years of service receives a loan of 40.000, they need to pay 20 percent of that amount, or 8.000 euros. Additional discounts were calculated if these amounts were paid in one go...
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