Drobnjak to Ćulafić: Boljević disqualified himself, I can't wait for the competent authorities to investigate and establish the facts

The Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Eco-Fund, Svetlana Drobnjak, announced tonight that the Minister of Ecology, Damjan Ćulafić, has filed criminal charges against three members of that body, including her. She thanked him for speaking out in the media and for the opportunity to "clarify to the public what is really happening and what is behind the attacks on people whose only mistake was that they did not agree to turn a blind eye to their obligations during the mandate they were entrusted with."

"Dear Minister Ćulafić, I know that you are aware of the fact that the actions of the Board of Directors were in accordance with the law in this and any other case, but I believe that you are not aware of the fact that, by trying to harm my reputation, by firing a political gun, you presented yourself in the best possible way to the citizens of Montenegro.

"If you hadn't done that, it probably would never have occurred to me to burden the public with the fact that you, the very one, kept the Eco Fund's Report in a drawer from February, when this same committee adopted it, until July, when you pulled it out as a last-ditch attempt to secure a mandate for your candidate," said Drobnjak.

She added that Ćulafić knows very well that, according to all legal acts, members of the Eco Fund's board of directors are appointed and dismissed by the founder, i.e. the Government, and that she also knows that the Government has not dismissed the current board of directors and that it is working for its full term, in accordance with the law.

"Your intention to resort to an attempt to defame someone's work, character and deeds was not caused by our work, but by the fact that in that work it did not escape us that neither you nor two other registered candidates had complete documentation. And there is, in accordance with the statute, an electronic record of the session.

I am honestly amazed by the fact that the minister, whose words "law" and "legal" are not coming off his lips or appearing in his statements these days, allows himself to overlook the fact that the previous meeting of the board of directors, when resolving the competition, "missed" the fact that the candidate you selected at the time and whose term expires tomorrow, in addition to having a strong desire to be a director, also needed to meet the competition requirements.

For example, in terms of professional qualifications and work experience in the competition provided for in the national qualification framework, which is calculated from the date of recognition of the foreign university degree," Drobnjak points out.

The President of the Board of Directors of the Eco-Fund said that she is impatiently waiting for the competent authorities to investigate and establish the facts, both hers and Ćulafić's, after which, as she announced, she will also proceed in accordance with the law to protect her legal interests and personal dignity in relation to today's speech by the minister.

"No less important, and this is not because you know it very well, but for the sake of the Montenegrin public, I would like to point out that my work on the Eco Fund Board is exclusively voluntary. And to be completely frank, respected ministers, precisely because of those huge millions that you are throwing at each other in the media these days, which are neither yours nor the private property of the respected gentleman who is still, until tomorrow, the executive director, but it is the money of the citizens of Montenegro, I will not give in no matter how hard you try to 'scare' me in every way and I will not allow my signature, as the president of the board of directors in a still full and valid mandate, to be placed on the proposal of any candidate who did not have adequate documentation in the application for the competition. Not even on the proposal for your candidate, whom you tried with all your might, even by locking the premises, to keep in the position of director, and who was not proposed for at least one reason - because he disqualified himself by failing to provide the required documentation," says Drobnjak.

The correctness and legality of this administrative procedure for adopting the proposal, she adds, will be determined by the competent authority.

"The non-existent criminal liability will be established by the competent prosecutor's office, thanks to you, and after these activities, the epilogue of your attempted intimidation will be in civil proceedings, so the Montenegrin public will have more evidence of both the legality and the truthfulness of our claims," Drobnjak concluded in her response.