According to the decisions of the current and two former ministers of defence of Montenegro, more than €3.2m was illegally distributed to the employees of the Ministry, the budget inspection of the Ministry of Finance has found.
“With the payment of funds in December 2021, 2022 and 2023, inappropriate and illegal spending was carried out in the total amount of €3,219,220”, it has been determined through the inspection.
According to the ongoing tender, the construction of a bridge over the Tara River in the north of Montenegro is supposed to cost the state that much.
The Budget Inspection forwarded the findings to the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, special prosecutor Vukas Radonjic has confirmed for Radio Free Europe (RSE).
Therefore, a criminal case was opened in order to establish the existence of grounds for suspicion that a criminal offense was committed.
The last four ministers came under the scrutiny of the budget inspection, after the Ministry of Finance “observed certain discrepancies” in payments to employees of the Ministry of Defence.
The role of the budget inspection is to examine whether state funds are used legally and in accordance with their intended purpose. It took almost three months to “comb” the documentation.
They found that the then minister and current mayor of Podgorica, Olivera Injac, started with the inappropriate and illegal allocation of funds at the end of 2021. Namely, she spent nearly €135,000 on “rewards”.
Eleven times more – over €1.5m – was spent a year later by Filip Adzic, who managed the defence department after the dismissal of Minister Rasko Konjevic in October 2022.
The practice was continued by his successor as minister, Dragan Krapovic, who distributed more than €1.5m in December 2023. Although he was in office for only a month and a half, the minister also rewarded himself with €700.
As explained by the state secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Jovana Nisavic, “at this moment, the state can only compensate those funds in a court proceeding”.
In Montenegro, there is no Law on Budget Inspection that regulates these issues, but it is carried out according to the Law on Inspection Affairs.
The first Law on Budget Inspection is currently being considered in the Montenegrin parliament.
If the Law gets the green light, budget inspectors will be able to order the return of illegally spent budget funds.
