Privatisation in Montenegro – Highway to destitution?

Analyzes · 23/11/2014

Privatisations were often prepared and conducted behind closed doors, with companies often sold to allegedly murky businessmen or investors with close ties to high-ranking state officials. After privatisation, the relevant institutions generally failed to conduct oversight of investor behaviour in the newly privatised companies. The Government nevertheless provided significant State aid to investors through annexes to the privatisation contracts signed, providing in some cases hundreds of millions of Euros from the state budget to investors. Even with such significant levels of state support, the new owners often managed to leave the newly privatised companies destitute and bankrupt. Until now, the officials involved in corrupt privatisations have not faced any criminal accountability or political consequences for their actions. In the years to come, the Government will conduct privatisations of Montenegro’s remaining important Montenegrin service and export companies. This policy brief offers suggestions for necessary preventive steps that need to be taken by amending relevant laws in order to decrease the risks of repeating familiar scenarios from past privatisations.

Complete analysis you can download HERE (PDF)