(“ISTOK”, March 1998.)

The enormous quantity of goods which are sold on the black market, according to the documentation has gone to Malta, Cyprus, Albania and other countries, and all that has been transported by the ship “Blue Eye”, which couldn’t be found, and which could take five times more carriage than it was possible according to the registration.
When we tried to make a control of a warehouse in Bar, where according to our knowledge was stored coffee, few tonnes of coffee, the police cancelled their help.

On the 14th July last year Dusko Jovanovic was removed from the position of the director of the Department of Public Revenue by the decision of the Government. It happened one day after the press conference where the president of Montenegro Momir Bulatovic had spoken about the financial machinations in the Republic especially about the business of the company ASI. Was it a coincidence or the decision of the Government to remove you from the position was relayed with the Bulatovic’s claims; is the first question for Mr. Jovanovic?
- Only two days after the financial police had tried to make control of the work in ASI, under my official car an explosive device exploded. I don’t have any information that the Ministry of Interior Affairs has done anything about that terrorist act, except they have done an investigation. The controlling of ASI is related to direct and open threat to the inspectors who have done control and published it. So I am removed because I had dared to make control of the “untouchable” companies.

• A part of public still thinks that you have done it from the political reasons, to provide arguments for the Momir Bulatovic’s thesis at any price?

- Those stories are funny. The company with that much capital had to come to the control, especially because we had some information that it hasn’t been working in accordance with the law. I point out that we have done the partial control for 1996, and it wasn’t controlled in 1994. 1995. and 1997. That discovery is known to public; it was found out that this company had evaded 40 million of revenue to the state. However it is important to say that the control started two months after unnecessary correspondence with the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Montenegro, who after knowing that the Financial Police got the order to make a control, took the complete documentation of ASI, allegedly for the control and return it two months later. The results of their “control” were - without irregularity. It is indicative that the Ministry of Interior Affairs rejected my request to do the control together with the Financial Police and their conclusion was that there hadn’t been any irregularities in the ASI’s work. It should be said that we have done numerous controls together with the Ministry of Interior Affairs until this, so this case represented a precedent in the functioning of the state’s institutions, which interest should be just one thing: combating and prevention of the criminal actions. After that the Ministry of Interior Affairs began to deal with the elections, and today it establishes the Governments in the municipalities. You have to admit it is too much of the Ministry of Interior Affairs especially for the small and honourable Montenegro.

• In what way the companies like ASI evade taxes?

- Today there are so many companies like ASI. Those companies use the documentation “to close” the sale of the legally purchased goods on the black market, and that goods which are sold once, and in that way should be taxed, in papers they overtook, allegedly for the further sale, and in that way they overtook the obligations of paying taxes. The goods of course don’t exist because it has already been sold for cash. The circle is not still closed because they need to protect themselves, so they “forward” those “goods” to the four non existing companies in Serbia. We are talking about “Royal” from Pozarevac, “Hemopetrol” from Belgrade, “Napredak” from Krusevac and “PTS-trade” from Leskovac. ASI has forwarded goods valuable more than 200 million dinners to those companies. Of course in the control proceeding we have got the finding of the Financial Police of Serbia that those companies have not been not registered. The sum of the tax evasion in those cases is easily to calculate (28 percent).

• Do you know in which phase is the case of the company ASI?

- As much as I know in the complaint procedure the second instance court has abolished the decision of the Financial Police and returned the case to the new procedure. Personally, I don’t think they have done anything to lay down the facts once forever.

• In the last period the incumbent Government of Montenegro is accusing other federal unit for the ramp in Prijepolje.

- It is all about routine controls, mostly for the vehicles with the cargo, in order to prevent the smuggling and grey economy. The jobs with fuel, cigarettes, coffee and liquors can bring a lot of money. The transport of these goods in Montenegro and even to Serbia is mostly escorted by fictive documentation for one time basis and in Montenegro it is easy to gain one. It is enough if I say that you can earn to buy an average house of one smuggled lorry. The state is in lack of that money and I think it is completely unfair to accuse state officials in Serbia for doing their jobs. And who is accusing them, those who would prefer the border instead of the ramp!

•  Is the famous job with the cigarettes of transit nature as the authorities claim?

- At the real transit job the goods couldn’t be seen and furthermore couldn’t be sold in the streets! Domestic market has to be protected from that “transit goods”, because it is freed from taxes, it pushes out legally imported goods and in that way it creates enormous means. Those money instead to the state goes to the chosen number of the individuals.
- As the market in Montenegro is small it is logical to try to sell these goods in Serbia. This is why they are so angry when the officials in Serbia make control of the transport of these products.

• Which goods are the most “popular”?

- They are mostly the goods with high taxes and mostly imported goods too: cigarettes, coffee, liquor… when I was the head of the Department of Public Revenue we tried to prevent these cases, but we were not always successful because we needed the help of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. When we tried to make control of a warehouse in Bar where according to our knowledge were stored few tonnes of coffee the police cancelled their help. We didn’t know the reason why the Ministry of Interior Affairs had withdrawn the officials, and in that way had made obstacles to our control. I informed the minister about this in the written form and he answered that it had been an unpleasant incident. Those cases were repeated later especially when we tried to control the warehouses with cigarettes in Podgorica.

• You have said that it was mostly imported goods. Is it possible that the goods, for which there is the documentation about their import, are lost somewhere?

- To evade the taxes, those goods are forwarded by the papers to the non existing companies especially established and secured for these purpose. However, according to the information and the documentation I had, the enormous quantity of these goods nave gone to Kopar, Malta, Albania, Bosnia etc.
- Certain boat “BLUE EYE” has been used for these purposes. It belonged to the Navy once, was looked for unsuccessfully last year, over two months, over the sea and the lake, and finally we discovered that it had been sunk somewhere.
- In the registration papers of the boat there is information that the border for its sailing is coast of FRY. That boat was long 50 meters, wide 9 meters and with the draught of 1, 3 meter. It was registered for the capacity of 103 tones. According to the documentation of the authority of Port of Bar, in 1997. that boat was loaded with 300 tones of coffee and 2389 boxes of whiskey. With that carriage the boat allegedly sailed to Ploce. More incredible information is that this boat was loaded with 10 lorries full of 250 tones of coffee and sailed to Malta!
- This information can be easily checked because it was delivered to the Ministry of Interior Affairs by the Department of Public Revenue which asked for certain measures to be undertaken. However according to my information the Ministry of Interior Affairs has done nothing.
- Those goods were probably sold in the domestic market long time ago, but without paying revenues to the state.
linija

THE CASE OF THE COMPANY “NEKSAN”

Informative conversations

# Mr. Jovanovic, it is indicative that in this conversation you haven’t mentioned even one company which is owned by a sympathizer of the “political group” of Momir Bulatovic, and we know that there are some, like the case of the company “Neksan” owned by Miodrag Davidovic?
- I wasn’t in the Department of Public Revenue when that control was made, but as much as I know that case has the political underground. In that example we can see that Financial Police and the Ministry of Interior Affairs established very successful cooperation. In fact, the report of the financial control of the company “Neksan” has been made in the office of the Ministry of Interior Affairs in the Police Department in Podgorica, and not at the head office in Niksic, as it was usually done. Long existing “informative conversations” with the financial inspector proceeded to the signing of the report, after which he put his sign on the “document”. At the end it turned out that Davidovic has given to state more than he should have.