The 2016 Law on Public Assemblies and Public Events introduced major novelties with regard to freedom of assembly in Montenegro. Freedom of assembly is a right guaranteed to citizens under the Montenegrin Constitution. Tt makes an integral part of the foundation of a democratic society and is indivisible from freedom of expression. It can be considered to constitute a collective expression of view concerning an issue that is the cause for the assembly.
The launch of implementation of the project titled “Voice Your Rights! – Expanding Space for Free Assemblies”, implemented by the Institute Alternative (IA) and Human Rights Action (HRA), coincided closely with the beginning of the largest protests in the history of Montenegro. Furthermore, the onset of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, four months into project implementation, also affected the freedom of assembly. These circumstances heightened the need for independent monitoring and situation assessment, in the aim of protection of civil rights.
Despite the extraordinary circumstances, at least 898 assemblies occurred during the reporting period; that actual number was probably even higher, given that assemblies were frequent, large and often organised without advance notification. To illustrate the scale of increase, let us mention that, after only a few assemblies took place in 2014, the figure for 2015 (30 assemblies) was reported by the institutions as a major step forward.
This Monitoring Report aims to identify both positive and negative tendencies in relation to public assemblies and to provide recommendations to improve the current situation. The first Monitoring Report considers the freedom of assembly over the nine-month period, from December 2019 to September 2020. The next one will cover the subsequent nine months, concluding with May 2021.
President of the Parliament of Montenegro Aleksa Bečić today met representatives of the Institute Alternative – Stevo Muk, President of Managing Board, Milena Muk and Marko Sošić, public policy researchers.
Bearing in mind many-year long cooperation between the Parliament of Montenegro and the Institute Alternative, President Bečić expressed conviction that the good practise would be continued during the new parliamentary term as well. In an open dialogue, he referred to numerous activities of the Institute carried out within parliamentary programme and welcomed their engagement in monitoring the Parliament in the part of its control and oversight role.
Representative of the Institute informed President Bečić about current activities and expressed interest to cooperate with the Parliament and the responsible parliamentary working bodies through future projects. They stressed that the parliamentary support was exceptionally important for promoting the recently launched project “Parliamentary Oversight for Better Management”.
In this context, the interlocutors expressed readiness for further improvement of cooperation and noted that the efficient work of the Parliament was of key importance for further progress of Montenegro in the EU accession process.
From Pljevlja, through Nikšić and Podgorica, to Ulcinj and Budva, the business of two Nikšić companies which deal with the provision of security for property and individuals is connected with the former Minister of Defence and the positions he was in charge of.
Former Minister of Defence Predrag Bošković is considered to be one of the longest serving ministers, who covered various ministries during the three-decade rule of the DPS. In only the previous eight years, Bošković had been in charge of three departments. From 2012 to 2015 he was the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare. He took over the Ministry of Education in the first half of 2015 and managed that ministry until the elections in 2016. He then took over the post of Minister of Defence and remained there until the change of government after the elections in August 2020.
On behalf of the state, between 2009 and 2012, he headed the Board of Directors of the Coal Mine in Pljevlja. Since then, the business of the Nikšić-based company Vector Security (since 2018 called Vector System Security (VSS)) has been associated with his name. Their founder and owner is Ratko Popović from Nikšić, but Minister Bošković resolutely denies any personal connections with these companies.
“Bošković brought that company to Rudnik“, the former manager of the Pljevlja-based company told us during this research.
Publicly, former workers of the Nikšić-based bankrupt company Bauxite Mines connected Bošković with Popović’s company last year, after VSS became the owner of former union-owned land in the centre of Nikšić, with an area of 18,622 square metres. According to the available databases, no direct connection is actually visible, but there are a number of coincidences that, in the end, may not be just coincidences.
“If I had connections with that company (VSS – author’s note), it would be in the official data, in the register of ownership, as well as in my card for the registration of property,” Minister Bošković wrote in his response.
As Minister of Defence, he selected this company to provide security for the Army and its property for years. Thus, for years now, Popović’s company has been guarding the property of the Valdanos military complex in Ulcinj. The contract for Valdanos’s security costs at the beginning of 2018 was worth €65,067 and, at the beginning of 2019, €68,690. For this year (2020), Bošković signed a contract with the same company on 17 January to secure the Valdanos property for €58,776.90 – on average, over €5,000 a month.
At the beginning of 2020, Bošković signed an agreement on the delivery and installation of video surveillance systems at the facilities of the Ministry of Defence and the Army throughout Montenegro, through three parties, for a total of €306,170.64. On 6 April 2020, he signed an agreement for the maintenance of video surveillance, an anti-burglary system and access control for €27,300. Previously, in November 2017, he had signed an agreement on the delivery of video surveillance equipment with VSS worth €14,415 for the needs of the Health Centre of the Security Forces in Podgorica. Also, on 13 March 2018, he had signed an agreement on the maintenance of video surveillance with VSS worth €14,612.85.
As the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, on 1 May 2014, Bošković signed an agreement with Popović’s Vector Security on the provision of physical and technical security services for facilities and persons in the Centre for Accommodation of Asylum Seekers. The value of that agreement over 12 months was €99,011.81 or about €8,251 per month. While performing the function of Minister of Education, in August 2016 he signed an agreement with VSS on the provision of physical security services for the building of the Ministry of Education, the Institute for Education and the Examination Centre, over 12 months, for the amount of €14,962.58.
Finally, Vector System Security also provided security for the shareholder’s assembly of the company “13. Jul Plantaže” held on 25 September 2020. This brings us to the story of Predrag Bošković’s entrepreneurial activities.
Authors: Mikan Milošević and Zoran Radulović
Text is originally published in weekly newspaper Monitor, available here (in Montenegrin).
This text has been prepared within the project “For the Better Use of Public Money!”, implemented by the Institute Alternative with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The opinions and views presented in this text do not necessarily reflect those of the Embassy.
The negative effects of the hidden economy are numerous – low funding and quality of public services, no healthcare and pension coverage, maternity or annual leave. Informal practices also breed unfair competition and corruption, hamper regular enterprises from growing and innovating, and create problems with regard to access to finance. Informality leads ultimately to wage and purchasing power reduction and eventual losses of state revenues. The European Commission (2019) adds to the adverse effects of informality the increasing job insecurity and the lower safety at work.
SELDI’s Hidden Economy Index reveals that the hidden employment has increased in five out of six Western Balkans countries. Serbia is the only country which shows a decline since 2016, while Kosovo* remains the country with the highest hidden employment share. According to 45% of the businesses in North Macedonia and 72% of those in Albania, corruption is the most important factor for the existence of the hidden economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light on the problem. Lockdowns imposed by governments during the pandemic have created a rapid spike in unemployment, thus increasing the risk of people seeking undeclared work. What is more, enterprises employing undeclared workers will not be able to benefit from the emergency and recovery government measures, IPA funds, or the immediate EU support for the Western Balkans. The lack of healthcare coverage of fully undeclared workers poses a serious threat. According to SELDI’s data, 60% of the employed in Kosovo* claim to have no healthcare insurance, while every tenth employed in the Western Balkans region has no social security coverage.
The contract that we could not obtain before, we received after Ms. Maraš resigned, and a new CEO was appointed (and we were persistent as well).
Manager’s contract with Verica Maraš, which was extended for another 5 years in 2018 – available at: https://bit.ly/35oPtr4
We thank the new executive director, Mr. Vuković to whom we have already sent a new request, asking for the contract that he signed. We will search ask for contracts until they start publishing them by themselves (and during their own term in office).
On the black list of tax debtors, first five debtors are state owned enterprises.
According to the data of Tax Administration, just those five debtors owe a total of 27.7 millions of euros based on unpaid taxes and tax on contributions.
Among those nine companies which state helped skipping the regulations – there are Montenegro Airlines and Railway Transport, the leaders of this list of debtors. This, generous aid companies return to the state by not paying taxes and tax on contributions.
In the midst of popular discussion in public on splitting the pie – positions in public administration, can the management and administration of these time bombs of the public sector be shared by parties again as pie for suitable ones, only this time by those from different parties?
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The contract that we could not obtain before, we received after Ms. Maraš resigned, and a new CEO was appointed (and we were persistent as well).
On the black list of tax debtors, first five debtors are state owned enterprises.