Uncontrolled consumption of fuel at the expense of the citizens of Montenegro without legal basis, as well as unauthorized signing of wages, benefits and overtime hours, are allegedly the reasons for which the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption was arrested yesterday by order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office Jelena Perović.
Officers of the Special Police Department (SPO) entered the premises of the ASK at around nine o'clock yesterday morning, when they began the search.
A few hours later - around 13.30:XNUMX p.m., Perović is accompanied by the police and his legal representative, a lawyer. Nikola Martinović taken out of the ASK headquarters, after which her private apartment was also searched. Shortly after 15 p.m., it was conducted in the SPO...
According to the knowledge of "Vijesti", the Agency has excluded documentation that, among other things, also refers to travel orders, but also to decisions by which it signed salary awards, overtime work, minutes from the meetings of the ASK Council...
"After searching the office and the official vehicle, by order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, the officers of the Special Police Department detained JP, the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, due to the grounds of suspicion that she committed a prolonged criminal offense of abuse of official position during last year and until April of this year. The suspect will be brought in for questioning within the legal term. The police are searching her apartment and other premises in order to find other traces and objects of the criminal offense," said the spokesman of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, the special prosecutor, yesterday. Vukas Radonjic.
The Special State Prosecutor's Office is responsible for criminal acts of high corruption, including abuse of official position, if the perpetrator is a public official, regardless of the amount of material or other benefit obtained.
Martinović did not answer the calls of "Vijesti" yesterday. For RTCG, he said that SPO officials announced that they were conducting a search "because of the well-founded suspicion that the criminal offense of abuse of official position has been committed."
"However, they did not communicate with a single word or document what this means specifically," Martinović pointed out, adding that the investigators "did not find anything compromising."
"Obviously, some want to prevent the fight against corruption in Montenegro by reducing the costs and budget of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. For this reason, I say that this is about fighting against the agency and not about preventing a criminal act," he said.
At the expense of the citizens and to Slovenia for the holidays
The criminal complaint for misuse of an official vehicle against Perović was filed by the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) in February of last year. "Vijesti" has no information on whether yesterday's action is related to that.
Since last year, based on that report, SDT has also been investigating whether the director of ASK abused her official position by using official cars outside of regulations.
Last year, the MANS research center discovered that the director of ASK made an illegal decision regarding the use of the vehicle fleet of that institution, so she and her assistants Nina Paović allocated for permanent use (24 hours) two passenger vehicles owned by the Agency.
At the time, MANS emphasized that the contested decision was made contrary to "the Government Regulation on the conditions and manner of using vehicles owned by Montenegro, which prescribes which public officials can have the privilege of permanent use of state-owned vehicles".
The regulation stipulates that the President of Montenegro, the President and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, the Prime Minister and members of the Government, the Presidents of the Supreme and Constitutional Courts, the Supreme and Special State Prosecutors, as well as the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms have the possibility of permanent use of an official vehicle.
The regulation on the use of means of transport owned by Montenegro also defines that the permanent use of vehicles can be granted to persons who are under special protection measures, based on the assessment of the authority responsible for security affairs.
Previously, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) and the National Security Agency (ANB) responded that a security assessment was not done for Perović, which is in accordance with the Regulation, a condition for her to be able to use the vehicle 24 hours a day.
According to last year's "Vijesti" research, Perović and Paović traveled more than 2022 kilometers in official cars in just one month, in September 6.800. Based on that, on the ASK website of available travel orders, it can be seen that in September 2022, Perović traveled over 4.200 kilometers, and Paović over 2.600 kilometers.
In other months, this consumption is significantly lower, so it ranged from less than 1.000 in March 2022 to 2.200 kilometers in December of the same year for the director.
On December 30, 2022, the Director of ASK traveled to Ljubljana in an official vehicle, from where she returned to Podgorica on January 6, 2023, via Belgrade.
Analyzing the travel orders from the Agency's website, "Vijesti" came to know that the vehicle used by the director, at that time, exceeded 120 kilometers per day on the territory of Podgorica alone. At that time, they did not receive any answers from the "Vijesti" Agency about the amount of monthly fuel costs.
Claiming that KAS employees are also suffering from pressure from public officials, part of the media and certain non-governmental organizations, Perović requested and received permission from the MUP to change the official license plates to civilian ones, and also to darken the windows of the expensive state car (BMW 318). .
Ignoring the Budget Inspection, trade union reports
The SDT recently filed a criminal case against Perović in connection with the documentation submitted to them by the Ministry of Finance, after the Directorate for Budget Inspection controlled the ASK.
According to this finding, the director of ASK worked as much as 310 hours of overtime last year, for which she signed an amount of EUR 5.212,10, and she was also on duty on holidays - May 22 and 23 and July 13 and 14 last year. year, for which she paid herself daily wages in the amount of 536,78 euros. Perović also wrote variables for herself, for which she received almost 13.500 euros, which, according to the finding, is contrary to the Law on Salaries of Employees in the Public Sector. She collected an additional more than 8.700 euros for work in the Working Group for determining the list of public officials. According to the data of the Budget Inspection, for the period from January to June last year, the director of the ASK paid the members of the former Council at least 10.000 euros more than what is prescribed by law.
After such a finding and the order of the Budget Inspection to eliminate the irregularities, Perović re-signed overtime and variables for herself for March as well. She refused to act on the order of the budget inspectors and revoked that decision.
At the end of last year, the trade union organization ASK filed a criminal complaint against Perović with the SDT, claiming that he abuses his position, threatens employees and members of that union, accuses them of collaborating with MANS and suspends them as a sign of retaliation.
This, among other things, was stated in the report by the president of the ASK trade union organization Dušan Drakić.
In addition to other things, as Drakić stated in his report to the SDT, Perović also allegedly claims that "the criminal complaint filed by the Trade Union Organization is identical to the criminal complaint previously filed by the non-governmental organization MANS and that this is material evidence that the data has been stored for two years amounts from the Agency, as well as that there is a direct connection between MANS and the Trade Union Organization, and that the application was submitted for financial and interest reasons"...
"That's how conscientious people work"
Perović, the former president of the Basic Court in Cetinje, at one time went beyond the regulations and asked for and received suggestions from Vesne Medenica how to act in individual cases, it is stated in the transcripts of their conversations, which are part of a case against the former president of the Supreme Court.
Despite their clearly defined mutual relations in the functions they covered, during 2020, the director of the ASK consulted with the then head whether to order detention or cancel detention for someone, but she also apologizes for not accepting a plea agreement in one case, she informs is who applied for which positions in the judiciary...
"President, I have to tell you that the NP advisor is one of the few who is so dedicated to work and the court. Loyal to law and justice. I know there are criteria, but it seems to me that this feature cannot be recognized unless we say which one it works for. I simply had a moral obligation to tell you this. Excuse me on the loose. Greetings", she writes on March 17, 2020 to Medenica with a smiling emoticon.
DON'T MISS IT
Paović is her assistant in ASK as well. A few months later, she insisted on another one of her advisers.
Perović, as he writes, also informs Medenica about a property proceeding in the capital and informs her that the case ended up in the High Court in Podgorica following an appeal:
"Just so you're up to date", sends Perović on June 24, 2020.
“Okay. Thanks for the information. That's what conscientious people do," Medenica replies to her...
Kudos, "sky prosecutor" and tabloid
MANS filed a number of criminal charges against the director of ASK for abuse of office, and she claimed that we are illegally following her and putting pressure on her because she does not act in cases of hiding the property of public officials, MANS said yesterday.
"...She denied us access to information that is public according to the law, and led numerous fabricated proceedings against us, while she accused the members of the trade union organization of that institution of cooperation with MANS and because of that she suspended many of them", they stressed.
Deputy Prime Minister for Security, Internal Policy, European and Foreign Affairs Aleksa Becic he said that the arrest of Perović is "a clear signal and message that we will continue with the firm hand of a just and determined state with which there will never be any more games or compromises".
Minister of Interior Affairs Danilo Šaranović he emphasized that the arrests carried out by the SPO on the order of the SDT "are an indicator of the extent of captivity and abuses that existed in Montenegrin institutions".
DPS, on the other hand, say that he is the chief special prosecutor Vladimir Novović "sky prosecutor", accusing him of carrying out persecution "according to the dictates of "Vijesta" and the 30th of August majority".
After the arrest, Perović, DPS spokesman Milos Nikolic he said that "after several months of attempts to illegally remove her failed, along with thousands of articles published in the tabloid "Vijesti" that tried to damage her public reputation and integrity, the SPO went one step further with the intrusion of the SPO into the premises of ASK".
"It is obvious that Vladimir Novović no longer intends to feign integrity, but agrees to be an ordinary tool in the hands of the parliamentary majority and media-political circles that draw targets, write indictments and pass judgments instead of the institutions of the system..." Nikolić announced.
The SDT announced that the chief special prosecutor Novović did not and will not act in any sense in the case against the director of the KAS.
"In order to truthfully inform the interested public, and due to media reports and statements of other social actors, we inform you that the chief special prosecutor has not acted in any sense, nor will he act in the case formed against JP, the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, and for the reason that , after the formation of the case, at his request, the supreme state prosecutor took over to directly exercise all powers and undertake all actions for which the chief special prosecutor is authorized by law, and all in accordance with Article 133 of the Law on the State Prosecutor's Office", according to the announcement of the SDT- a.
MANS said that it is no wonder that DPS defends Perović: "She really deserved it because she tried her best not to prosecute any functionary of that party who hid assets during her mandate, and to persecute all critics of the previous regime." .
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