State aid to Montenegro Airlines (MA) is a secret

Press releases · 02/07/2018

MANS submitted a request to the Ministry based on the Law on Free Access to Information, and access was requested through submitting a copy of all payments made by the Ministry in 2017 in order to pay off loans and interests of MA.

“Considering the request i.e. the information requested, it was determined that the Government marked the required information with a degree of secrecy “internal” and that pursuant to Article 1, Paragraph 2 of the Law on Free Access to Information, it was rejected,” it is stated in the decision of the Ministry.

MANS told Vijesti that hiding of data in which way the taxpayers’ money is spent is unacceptable in a society that at least formally wants to adopt European values.

“MA is a state-owned company that has been reporting loss for many years and because of which the Government has repeatedly put its hand in the citizens’ pocket and provided major financial aid to it from the budget. So far, we have at least been able to obtain information on how and in what way the Government has granted state aid to this company, but the latest amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information have enabled them for this information to be classified as secret, ” MANS stated.

On April 13 this year, additional €2 million aid was paid to MA from the state budget. According to this year’s budget rebalance, €4 million is allocated to Montenegro Airlines, based on the settlement of the supplier obligations, i.e. to Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency – SMATSA, the amount of €2 million, and the same amount is paid to other suppliers for settling the outstanding debt from the previous period. The European Commission has stated in a new report for Montenegro that it is concerned about continuous aid.

• €4,606,487 was the loss of the national airline company in the previous year, resulting in an accumulated loss of €76,497,309, according to data from the report on the business. MA is on the blacklist of tax authorities and the state, as announced by the Prime Minister Marković in the Parliament on Wednesday, and it owes €18.3 million euros for slalary taxes and contributions.
• MANS warns that the Law on Free Access to Information does not comply with key international standards and is contrary to the Constitution. MANS assessed that the Law limits transparency and that it is necessary to form a working group to make amendmends.

Text was published in Independent Daily Vijesti on July 2, 2018