The Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) will have to decide again on the initiative filed by the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS) against President Milo Đukanović for not reporting a collection of watches worth millions.
This was recently ordered to the Agency by the Administrative Court, after more than two years since the then director Sreten Radonjić rejected the MANS’ initiative, because, as he explained at the time, “data verification did not reveal any discrepancies with the data kept in the official records of others state bodies”.
“Vijesti” published back in 2011 that the president of Montenegro and the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) owned a platinum watch of the Swiss brand “Breguet Tourbillon” worth 91,300 pounds (106,076 euros).
In 2019, the accused businessman Duško Knežević submitted photos to the newspaper “Dan” with Đukanović’s watches, which he claimed were worth 1.5 million euros. He stated that it was a “Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon” worth 1,350,000 dollars, a Breguet Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar 3795pr/1e/9v6 worth 185,808 dollars, as well as a Ulysse Nardin Classic Skeleton Tourbillon 18k White Gold Men’s Watch 1700-129/03” worth 79,000 dollars.
“According to the findings of this court, it is contradictory that the defendant (APC) rejects the request of the plaintiff (MANS) in its entirety, and states in the reasoning that there are no elements to initiate proceedings that Đukanović as a public official violated Article 23 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption, referring to the submitting of income and asset reports with incomplete data.
Therefore, it is unclear how the defendant decided in the enacting terms on the merits of the request, which is preceded by initiating of proceedings, pursuant to Article 31 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption, and concludes in the reasoning that there are no elements for initiating proceedings to decide whether the public official violated the provisions of this law”, it is stated in the decision of the Administrative Court.
It is also pointed out that APC “generally and arbitrarily states that all data for the said public official were checked ex officio, and that no discrepancies with the data kept in official records were found during the inspection.”
“This is due to the fact that the circumstances from the request to initiate proceedings to determine the violation of the provisions of the Law on Prevention of Corruption could be addressed only by the public official who, according to the request, had allegedly violated the provisions of the Law, i.e. the President Milo Đukanović, since these are not data on which state bodies are obliged to keep official records”, the verdict points out. Therefore, they ordered the Agency to adopt a new legal decision upon the MANS’ report.
The judgement of the Administrative Court once again proves the extent to which APC was focused on protecting the highest officials of the previous government when it comes to prosecution for blatant violations of anti-corruption laws.
The Director of the MANS Investigative Centre, Dejan Milovac, told “Vijesti” that this is the second time in the last six months that the Administrative Court has annulled the decisions of the APC, which refer precisely to the Agency’s actions towards Đukanović.
“The intention of the Agency to spare Đukanović the obligation to comply with the Law on Prevention of Corruption is publicly visible from the decisions that were contested before the Administrative Court. The Administrative Court correctly stated that the explanation of the Agency for not acting in the case of expensive watches was inconsistent with the law, and that they failed to ask Đukanović for a statement regarding the mentioned watches. The APC justified itself by saying that their so-called ex officio checks did not show a discrepancy between Đukanović’s property and the data of the institutions that keep official records about it”, Milovac said.
He emphasizes that, as there is no institution in Montenegro that keeps records on the ownership of watches, APC found that Đukanović does not violate the law by not reporting the ownership of several watches with a total value of several million.
“Of course, this is a lot of nonsense and deliberate obstruction of the application of the law which must be the same for everyone, including the president of the sate”, Milovac points out. In his opinion, after such a judgement of the Administrative Court, APC will have to get a statement from Đukanović on the origin of the watches that are in his ownership.
“It will be really interesting to see how Đukanović will do it, and the public has the right to finally get accurate information after several years of speculation regarding those watches. And this is if APC does not suddenly decide to declare Đukanović’s testimony secret, which would not come as a surprise,” Milovac said.
He reminded that APC already did that once.
“This was in connection with the statement about the reasons for the alleged business trip from Podgorica to Paris, which is suspected to have been of a private nature, and that Đukanović used the plane of the Government of Montenegro for personal needs”, Milovac concluded.
He had a monthly income of around 2,100 euros last year
Đukanović had a salary of around 2,105 euros last year. That is stated in his annual report on assets and income. Đukanović is also the chairman of four working bodies – the Defence and Security Council, the Council for Sustainable Development, Climate Change, the Senate of the Capital City and the Coordination Committee for transfer of mortal remains of descendants of Petrović Njegoš dynasty from Italy, France and Austria He was not paid for these engagements.
Đukanović reported that his wife, Lidija Đukanović, received a little over 890 euros for most of the year. When it comes to real estate, Đukanović is the owner of an apartment of 187 m2, which he acquired by purchase, and after the probate proceedings, by exchange or inheritance, he also acquired residential premises of 47 and 170 m2, non-residential premises of 42, 70 and 168 m2, garages of 81 m2, and about 110,000 m2 of land.
The President is a co-owner of the company “Global Montenegro” and a quarter of “Univerzitats” – the founder of the University of Donja Gorica.
