CCE: This is not just a matter of a single public procurement, but a test of institutions’ willingness to show that the law applies equally to all

For more than two and a half years, the Special State Prosecutor’s Office has been trying to dispose of a criminal complaint against the Executive Director of the Montenegrin Electricity Transmission System Ivan Asanović who is accused of abuse of office, i.e. embezzlement of a total of 76,464 euros, an amount allegedly paid for the rehabilitation of a road in the Budva local community of Gornji Pobori II.

Former Special Prosecutor Nataša Bošković initially tried to rid herself of the case by assessing that it did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Special Prosecutor’s Office. However, when the High Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica also declared itself not competent, she was obliged to act and dismissed the criminal complaint twice as unfounded.

However, the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office, for the second time at the end of December last year, upheld the complainant’s appeal, meaning that special prosecutors will once again have to deal with this case.

SPECIAL PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE REMAINS SILENT

The ETV portal sent questions to the Special Prosecutor’s Office, but received no answer.

In the meantime, Special Prosecutor Bošković resigned in December last year, so another prosecutor will now handle the case.

The criminal complaint against Asanović was filed by a whistleblower from the METS, whose protected status was revoked by the Administrative Court, an unprecedented move in democratic countries, after proceedings were initiated against a decision of the former management of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption by the current Deputy President of the Council of that institution, who is also the METS’s lawyer, Mladen Tomović.

It is interesting that the new management of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, headed by acting director Dušan Drakić, who is a friend and legal client of Tomović, did not submit complete documentation in the METS whistleblower case to the Administrative Court, which, according to the whistleblower, was the decisive reason for revoking his protected status.

Drakić, shortly after assuming office, stated to the ETV portal that the whistleblower’s case would be re-examined.

In addition, for almost 15 months, Drakić has refused to act upon the Administrative Court’s ruling and have the Agency issue a new decision regarding the whistleblower’s protection status.

In the complaint submitted in September 2023, the whistleblower pointed to two payments approved by Asanović totaling 76,464 euros - the first is a donation to the local community Gornji Pobori II for road rehabilitation at the end of 2021 (30,000 euros), and the second - at the beginning of 2022, a contract with the company „Akropolis“ LLC from Nikšić, also for road rehabilitation in Gornji Pobori II, worth 46,464 euros including VAT.

Both payments referred to the rehabilitation of a local road damaged during the construction of the 400 kV Lastva-Čevo transmission line, but the whistleblower insists that this was a fictitious job, as the road had already been rehabilitated two years earlier, after the transmission line passed through the village.

TESTIMONIES - CONFIRMATION OF THE COMPLAINT

In the donation proposal submitted by Asanović to the Board of Directors, it was stated that 30,000 euros should be paid to the local community Gornji Grbalj (Municipality of Kotor), but the donation was actually paid to Gornji Pobori II (Municipality of Budva).

- In this way, they tried to conceal that the money was given for work that had been completed almost two years earlier - the whistleblower claims.

Members of the Board of Directors, in their statements to the Special Police Department, attempted to justify this contradiction as an alleged error corrected during the Board session.

- That is not true, as confirmed by their own statements. Particularly striking are inconsistencies in the testimonies of D. Đ. and N. P., who prepared and signed the donation proposal. D. Đ. said during questioning that N. P. informed the Board of the alleged error, while she said that someone else did it but could not remember who. If that had been the case, which it was not, it would have had to be recorded in the minutes of the Board meeting - the whistleblower told the ETV portal.

He also points out that an expert engaged by the Special Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the local community Gornji Pobori II lacks the necessary documentation - project, construction log, supervision, and control for the 30,000 euros donation.

- The expert assessed that the funds could have been used for the rehabilitation of the road in question, but that there is no explicit confirmation in the available documentation that this was actually done – he adds.

He further states that the testimony of Ranko Bjeletić, owner of „Akropolis“ LLC from Nikšić, before the Special Police Department confirms the allegations from his complaint regarding embezzlement in the public procurement worth 46,464 euros, and that what he said suggests that documentation was falsified.

NO ONE KNOWS HOW „CAR INVEST“ APPEARED IN THE DOCUMENTS

- He stated that his company did not perform the work under the contract with the METS, but after visiting the site and hearing the conditions set by local residents, he offered the job to Vlado Mirković, representative of the company „Asfalt beton“, who accepted to carry out the works. He also pointed out that he does not know why „Car invest“ (a company owned by former Budva mayor Marko Bato Carević) was listed as a subcontractor instead of „Asfalt beton“, and that he had no communication whatsoever with „Car invest“ - the whistleblower states.

He emphasizes that former Special Prosecutor Bošković did not consider these allegations and instead stated in her decision dismissing the complaint that the work had been carried out by „Akropolis“ LLC from Nikšić.

- Thus, while on page 4 of the decision dismissing the complaint there is a statement by the executive director of „Akropolis“ admitting that his company did not perform the work, on page 7 it is stated that, based on the construction log, the contractor was „Akropolis“ - which remains unclear - the whistleblower explains.

He is adamant that everything related to this public procurement was unlawful.

- The company „Asfalt beton“ participated in the tender and was ranked third - meaning it had the highest price, after which the top-ranked bidder „Akropolis“, assigned the work to it, only for it to ultimately turn out that the work was carried out by the company „Car invest“. It is illegal for a company that wins a tender to transfer the job to another company, and even more so for a third company to end up performing the work - he says.

ROAD 

REPAIRED AS EARLY AS 2020

According to the whistleblower, documentation related to the construction project of the Lastva-Čevo transmission line also confirms that no road rehabilitation took place and that it was merely used as a pretext for extracting money from the METS. As he states, this documentation clearly indicates that the rehabilitation of roads, including in the local community of Gornji Pobori II, was completed in early 2020.

He explains that the Lastva-Čevo transmission line was put into operation in April 2019, and four months later, on August 9, the METS launched two tender procedures - one for the rehabilitation of damaged local roads in the Municipality of Budva, with an estimated value of 200,000 euros including VAT, and another for the rehabilitation of local roads in the Royal Capital of Cetinje, estimated at 137,000 euros including VAT.

In the tender documentation, our interlocutor adds, it is explicitly stated that, in the Municipality of Budva, the works concerned the rehabilitation of the Lapčići-Gornji Pobori local road, six kilometers in length.

He says that the allegations from his complaint are also confirmed by the reports on the implementation of the METS’s Investment Plan for the third and fourth quarters of 2020, both reports clearly state that the rehabilitation of local roads in the Municipality of Budva had been completed.

The whistleblower considers it unacceptable that the former Special Prosecutor did not question Dragan Perunović, the project manager for the construction of the 400 kV Lastva-Čevo transmission line, who, according to him, was directly involved in the road rehabilitation works in the Municipality of Budva, not only as the coordinator of the procedure, but also as a member of the public procurement commission conducted under the tender documentation dated August 9, 2019.

He also finds it problematic that other employees who participated in the preparation of the two reports were not questioned.

METS REFUSES TO COMMENT

He also points to the detail that, during questioning, Asanović referred to the Government of Montenegro Conclusion No. 07-734 of September 28, 2017, which „tasks the Montenegrin Electricity Transmission System AD to assess available options and find adequate solutions to overcome problems related to the suspension of works associated with the demands of local communities and residents for the improvement of road infrastructure used during the implementation of the project“.

- The 400 kV Lastva-Čevo-Pljevlja transmission line (Lastva-Čevo section) was put into operation on April 2, 2019. The rehabilitation of local roads in the Municipality of Budva was completed in early 2020. It is quite obvious that in September 2021, when the first request for assistance was submitted by the President of the Council of the Local Community Gornji Pobori II Miodrag Ivanović, there could not have been any suspension of works related to the demands of local communities, since the section of the transmission line from Lastva to Čevo had been completed and put into operation almost two and a half years earlier - the ETV Portal interlocutor explains.

The Montenegrin Electricity Transmission System did not respond to our questions.

- In relation to all the allegations from your questions, we inform you that the METS has, on several occasions, submitted detailed statements and all requested documentation to the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, which, as you are aware, dismissed the criminal complaint. Also, as the case, according to your information, is still pending before the competent authorities - and since decisions on dismissal, as well as rulings on complaints, are not delivered to the reported party but only to the complainant – METS will refrain from further comments on this matter until a final decision by the state authorities - the state-owned electricity company told the ETV Portal.

CCE CLOSELY MONITORS THE CASE

The NGO Centre for Civic Education (CCE) is also monitoring the case of the disputed METS public procurement and, through requests for free access to information, as they told us, sought from this state-owned company „relevant documentation, which to date has not been provided in a scope that would allow for a full and independent analysis of the presented claims“.

- Therefore, CCE initiated an appeal procedure before the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information. However, although the Agency upheld the appeal and ordered METS to reconsider and provide the requested information, they rejected the request again in the repeated procedure, explaining that court proceedings are ongoing and that CCE is allegedly a party to those proceedings. We emphasize that this claim is incorrect, as CCE is not a party to any court proceedings with METS. Additionally, the explanation also refers to proceedings before the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, which indicates a failure to distinguish between court and prosecutorial proceedings - CCE told the ETV Portal in response to our questions.

They recalled that as early as September 2025, they had „requested documentation related to financial transactions and decisions concerning the public procurement in question, including payment orders, contracts, minutes, and audio recordings of Board of Directors meetings“.

- The failure to provide this information further deepens concerns about the transparency of actions in this case. The allegations raised by the whistleblower point to potentially serious violations of the law, including possible abuse of office and misuse of public funds. Therefore, we believe it is of crucial importance that the competent institutions, primarily the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, conduct a thorough, impartial, and transparent investigation - CCE stated.

They particularly emphasize that it is concerning that the criminal complaint was dismissed twice, while the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office ordered reconsideration both times.

­- Such developments further highlight the need for serious and consistent examination of the allegations in the complaint. If we want to encourage whistleblowers to report abuses and protect the public interest, it is essential that their reports be examined efficiently and thoroughly. Otherwise, lengthy and ineffective proceedings may expose them to additional harm, including material and non-material damage - they stressed.

CCE said it will continue to closely monitor the case and insist on full transparency and accountability of all involved actors, bearing in mind the importance of protecting the public interest and citizens’ trust in institutions.

- In the end, this is not just a matter of a single public procurement, but a test of the willingness of institutions to demonstrate that the law applies equally to all and that those who point out abuses are protected, rather than subjected to pressure and persecution, as we see in this case - CCE concluded.