The opinion of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption that the public interest is at risk because the director of the Risan-based "Grabovac" Nursing Home constantly used an official vehicle is "contradictory and was issued without conducting an investigation," the institution, which is managed by Srđan Dragomanović.
The institution told "Vijesti" that, if they had been included in the investigation, they would have also submitted the internal rule on the conditions and manner of using official vehicles, which was adopted on April 11, 2024.
They pointed out that they had repeatedly requested a meeting with the Agency's management and the acting director. Dušan Drakić, and they also invited him to publish the mileage of two ASK official vehicles, a "BMW 318" and a "Nissan X Trail", for the same period for which Dragomanović was reported, namely from January 1 to April 11, 2023.
"Today, the ASK website contains the Decision on the Use of Official Vehicles No. 01-1010-21 of 19. 4. 2022, which states in Article 1 that the Director and Assistant Director of the Agency are assigned official vehicles for permanent use, namely the 'BMW 318' registration number PG CG L48 and the 'Nissan' X trail, registration number PG CG E23. It would be interesting for the Montenegrin public to compare the mileage of the aforementioned two official ASK vehicles in the identical period from 1.1.2023. to 11.04.2023., to which we publicly call on Director Drakić to publish this information," the Risan institution said in a statement.
At that time, the head of ASK was Jelena Perović, and "Vijesti" reported several times that she and her then assistant Nina Paović They travel thousands of kilometers in official Agency vehicles, in violation of regulations.
They also claim that on April 11, 2023, ASK submitted to the director "an unfounded report by an unknown person and a request for a statement."
"I have submitted a response with all the supporting documentation that I am sending you in the attachment to the email on the basis of which the ASK itself determined that the official vehicle was idle during the disputed period and that it was not used during the annual vacation. Instead of the Agency rejecting the unfounded application within the deadline for action, after two and a half years, it issued an opinion ignoring the provisions of the Law on Administrative Procedure, especially in the part of the investigation procedure. The aforementioned opinion is contradictory and was issued without conducting an investigation procedure, in which, if we had been involved, we would have also submitted the internal rule on the conditions and manner of using official vehicles, adopted on 11. 4. 2024. The aforementioned rule is fully compliant with the Regulation, while the ASK based its opinion on incorrect data and documentation that was in force in April 2023," the letter from the Nursing Home states.
They emphasize that "both the ASK Rulebook and the Regulation that was in force in April 2023 are completely identical to the Rulebook of the 'Grabovac' Risan Nursing Home from 2011, especially in the part regarding the use of a company vehicle by the director."
"In any case, the adoption of the Rulebook, to which the Agency refers and which has not been in force since April 2024, is not within the competence of the director, but of the institution's Board of Directors. Although it gave the director the opportunity to permanently use a company vehicle, it does not automatically mean that the director's authority was exceeded. The above is confirmed by the fact that the director's place of residence is 18 kilometers from the institution's headquarters, and therefore, by mathematical calculation for the period specified in the report (101 days), the mileage traveled for the purposes of arriving and returning from work would amount to 3.636 km, which is almost 200 km less than the total mileage traveled," the letter specified.
The institution emphasizes that "it is normal for the director of the institution to attend a quarterly meeting with the relevant Ministry, while he has never used his right to a driver, thereby achieving significant financial savings."
"We would like to point out that 'Grabovac' is one of the few institutions in which all official vehicles have GPS surveillance, which excludes any possibility of abuse. 'Grabovac', after the opinion was submitted, requested that the Agency hold a meeting, as well as submit the current Agency Regulations and the decision to which they refer, but instead of the requested documents, we were only provided with a decision from the previous year, without accompanying documentation. After that, two urgent requests were sent, to which the Agency did not respond, but instead informed the relevant Ministry that our institution did not act within the given deadline, deliberately ignoring the requests that we had sent them several times, which concerned holding a meeting in order to resolve the dilemma regarding the competence to adopt the Regulations and the conflict of interest in the part performed by a member of the Board of Directors," the Risan institution points out.
They once again appealed to ASK to urgently schedule a meeting with representatives of the "Grabovac" Nursing Home, to which they will also invite media representatives, in order to "determine any possible violation of positive regulations and our dilemma of who controls the controller, in this case ASK."
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