The Regulation on Activities and Businesses that Emit Greenhouse Gases is not clear and precise enough, opening up space for corruption risks, according to the opinion of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.
The Agency, in its opinion published yesterday, considered and analyzed the Regulation at the initiative of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Political System and the President of the National Anti-Corruption Council. Moma Koprivica.
The agency recently announced that the procedure for registering and awarding free emission credits worth millions to operators of stationary plants in 2020 and 2021, the Electric Power Company of Montenegro, the company "Uniprom", which then managed the Aluminum Plant, and the company "Toščelik" was illegal, which led to a threat to the public interest, indicating the existence of corruption.
At that time, in their opinion, they also emphasized that the Regulation on Activities and Businesses Emitting Greenhouse Gases entered into force only after the free emission credits were registered in the register of the Environmental Protection Fund (Eco Fund).
"The analysis of the provisions concluded that they are not sufficiently clear and precise, that is, they do not regulate all issues in a clear, precise and unambiguous manner, especially taking into account the fact that certain provisions refer to international documents, without further definition and specification, but also the fact that a large number of issues are regulated by the annexes themselves, which may make the norms even more unclear," the Agency's opinion states.
The Agency, it was emphasized, recognizes the space for improving the existing normative framework, so that there is no room for interpretation and ambiguity, and that it will be fully harmonized with relevant international documents in this area.
Therefore, among other things, they recommend defining the issue of how to proceed in cases where facilities that have been issued a permit for greenhouse gas emissions cease to operate during the period for which the permit was issued, in order to eliminate the risk that certain facilities may still have a permit if they cease to operate.
"This is especially true when considering the corruption risks identified in this analysis, which relate to the need to define a more precise and complete method of conducting the auction, determining criteria for defining and formulating the minimum price of emission credits, but also considering and considering prescribing a different period for which free emission credits can be allocated, which will be fully based on international standards, taking into account the time of entry into legal force of national regulations governing this area," the Agency's recommendations state.
Analysis and lack of documentation
In their opinion, the Agency points out that during the analysis of the text of the Regulation, they did not have access to a large part of the documents, including the explanation of the Proposal for that act, but also the report from the public hearing, that is, from the consultations and working meetings held.
"On the website of the Government of Montenegro, documentation from Government sessions related to this Regulation is unavailable," the Agency emphasizes.
They were not provided with the opinions of the European Integration Office and the Competition Protection Agency.
"Therefore, it cannot be determined with certainty whether they were obtained during the period of adoption of the Regulation. The RIA form states that for the purposes of drafting the text of the Draft Regulation, a Working Group was established, consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, the Ministry of Economy, the Environmental Protection Agency and representatives of relevant institutions, and that expert assistance was provided by regional and national experts. In this procedure, the Agency could not determine with certainty the composition, jurisdiction and period of work of this working group, or the work of any experts engaged, and whether they prepared certain analyses or other working material that was the starting point for drafting the text of the Regulation, or specific solutions due to the unavailability of documentation," the Agency's opinion states.
In the absence of complete documentation that accompanied the adoption of the Regulation, it is stated, specifically the explanation or possible analyses, it remains unknown how and in what manner the provisions of the Regulation were defined, i.e. what criteria and methodologies were used.
"In order to better understand the subject matter and provisions of this by-law for the implementation of the Law on Protection from the Negative Impacts of Climate Change, the explanation of this law, which was considered in the form of a proposal by the Parliament of Montenegro before its adoption, was also taken into account. The explanation that accompanied the Draft Law did, to a certain extent, resolve doubts in relation to specific solutions, i.e. data, obligations and other issues regulated by the Regulation, especially in the part relating to the list of international documents with which the law was harmonized (and therefore it is assumed that the by-law for its implementation was also harmonized). However, the explanation of the Draft Law is not detailed in the part explaining the basic legal institutes, and is therefore insufficient in itself for the provisions of this by-law to be considered sufficiently clear and precise in a way that will remove any doubt about uniform treatment during interpretation and application," the Agency assessed.
Endangering the public interest
Emission credits are a type of securities sold by the state Environmental Protection Fund, and polluters must purchase them in an amount corresponding to their emissions of harmful gases as compensation for damage, or the state grants them free of charge to those who have reduced pollution over a certain period.
In an earlier opinion, the Agency emphasized that the registration and allocation of free broadcasts themselves, which were implemented during the Duško Marković government, were contrary to several regulations at the time, meaning that there was a "threat to the public interest that indicates the existence of corruption, which represents a violation of regulations and ethical rules" and "abuse of official, business, or social position or influence for the purpose of obtaining personal benefit or benefit for another."
Emission credits are provided for by the Law on Protection from the Negative Impacts of Climate Change, which was adopted on December 23, 2019. The Environmental Protection Fund (Eco Fund), as the institution that should deal with the registration and allocation of these emissions, was registered, i.e. it began operating on March 3, 2020.
"From the submitted documentation and statement, it can be determined that free emission credits for operators of stationary plants for 2020 were entered into the register of emission credits of the Eco Fund on 21 February 2020, although the Eco Fund as a legal entity did not exist at that time because it was not registered with the CRPS, therefore the register of emission credits could not have existed either. It can also be concluded from the submitted information that there is no written record in the Fund's official archive of the entry of emission credits into the register for 2020, while the Eco Fund entered emission credits for operators of stationary plants for 2021 on 1 January 2021. The Eco Fund settled the spent emission credits in the Register from 2020 for 2021, although the plants of Elektroprivreda Crne Gore AD Nikšić and 'Toščelik' did not submit verified reports on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, on "In what way were the number of emission credits from the previous year annulled for these facilities without a verified report on actual GHG emissions. 'Uniprom doo Nikšić' submitted two verified reports on GHG emissions for 2020 and 2021," the Agency's decision stated.
Bonus video:
