Kuč wrote to the APC Council: A judicial warning cannot be an obstacle to candidacy for director - it is a matter of a missed deadline

Mithat Kuč, a candidate who applied for the competition for Director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (APC), addressed the Council after it announced that it would request information from the High Misdemeanor Court regarding the sanction - a judicial warning - imposed on him.

In a letter to the Council, which Portal ETV had access to, Kuč, a former Acting Secretary of the Secretariat of the Prosecutorial Council, informed the Council in detail about the finality of the court decision, the reasons why he did not file an appeal, as well as all reports on income and assets that he submitted during and after holding office. He also explained the circumstances that led to the initiation of misdemeanor proceedings.

In his letter, Kuč states:

„Hereby, in connection with my candidacy for director, I would like to inform you that the decision of the Misdemeanor Court imposing a judicial warning on me has become final. I also inform you that I did not file an appeal against the said decision.“

According to him, from the day of his appointment he regularly and timely submitted reports on income and assets in accordance with legal obligations, and he considers it necessary to further inform the Council about this in detail.

„On December 15, 2022, I was appointed by the Prosecutorial Council as Acting Secretary of the Secretariat of the Prosecutorial Council. In accordance with the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, I duly and timely submitted to the Agency a report on income and assets within 30 days of assuming that office.“

He also highlights the regular annual reports:

„By March 30, 2023, I duly and timely submitted to the Agency the regular annual report on income and assets for 2022, and for 2023 by March 30, 2024.“

Kuč further states that after his term ended, he duly submitted a report:

„After my term as Acting Secretary of the Secretariat of the Prosecutorial Council ended on June 6, 2024, in accordance with the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, I submitted to the Agency a report on income and assets within 30 days of the termination of my office.“

He also points out extraordinary reports submitted after the end of his term:

„On December 3, 2024, after my term had ended, when my wife refinanced a consumer loan, I duly and timely submitted an extraordinary report to the Agency, which I attach.“

„On December 30, 2024, after my term had ended, when I refinanced a consumer loan, I submitted an extraordinary report to the Agency, which I attach.“

„Also, on July 2, 2025, after I refinanced the said loan again, and after my wife also refinanced a consumer loan, I duly and timely submitted an extraordinary report to the Agency, which I attach.“

Kuč underlines:

„Therefore, from the above it clearly follows that after my term ended I submitted four reports on income and assets to the Agency, and three during the performance of my office.“

As he stated, after his term ended he consulted the Law on the Prevention of Corruption.

„After my term ended, I consulted the Law on the Prevention of Corruption in order to determine my obligations following the termination of office, and established that Article 25 paragraph 4 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, which was in force at the time my term ended, prescribed that a public official is obliged to notify the Agency and submit a report within 30 days of the termination of office, which I did, while paragraph 5 of the same Article prescribed that a public official whose term has ended is obliged to submit a report to the Agency once a year in the following two years after the termination of office, with the status as of the day of submission. Therefore, no limitation was prescribed that the report in the two years following the termination of office must be submitted by March 30 of the current year for the previous year, and for that reason I did not submit the report for 2024 by March 30, 2025, considering that the aforementioned provision was applicable.“

He explains the reasons for the delay.

„However, after misdemeanor proceedings were initiated against me for not submitting the report on income and assets for 2024 by March 30, 2025, I established,  which truly had not been known to me until then, that after my term ended (my term ended on June 5, 2024) Article 25 paragraph 5 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption was amended („Official Gazette of Montenegro“, No. 54/2024 of June 11, 2024, entering into force on June 12, 2024), prescribing that a public official whose term has ended is obliged to submit a report to the Agency once a year in the following two years after the termination of office, by the end of March of the current year for the previous year.“

According to him, he did not submit the report for 2024 in a timely manner (by March 30, 2025) because he overlooked the amendment to Article 25 paragraph 5 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption (which entered into force after his term had ended), which led to the initiation of misdemeanor proceedings against him. During those proceedings, he presented in detail before the court the reasons for the omission and, on November 5, 2025, remedied the irregularity by submitting the 2024 report to the Agency (which he attaches), and informed the court thereof, after which a judicial warning was imposed on him.

„Therefore, bearing in mind the above, my candidacy cannot in any way be disputed, because in this specific case I remedied the irregularity, declared my assets, was imposed the mildest sanction, and there are no elements of concealment or gain, which shows that there is no lasting breach of integrity, no serious form of violation of the law, and that this is a formal imposition of a sanction.“

He further states:

„I believe that, as a Council, when making further decisions regarding my candidacy, you should consider whether there was any intention not to submit the 2024 report in a timely manner - and from all the above it is clear that there was not; whether there was any concealment - and there was not, because I subsequently submitted the report; and whether there is any continuity of violations - and there is not, because in less than three years (during the performance of my office and after its termination), in the period when I was obliged to submit regular and extraordinary reports on income and assets, I duly and timely submitted six (6) reports to the Agency, which are available on the official website of the Agency, as I have verified.“

Finally, Kuč states in the letter:

„If the Council assesses that I have not passed the integrity test (which, in my deep conviction, cannot be the case) due to the judicial warning imposed on me for missing the deadline to submit the report on income and assets for 2024, which irregularity I have remedied, disregarding the above facts, I point to Article 88 paragraph 2 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, which also applies to the election of the Director of the Agency, and which prescribes that a person who has been finally convicted of criminal offenses in the field of corruption and who has not passed the integrity check in accordance with this law cannot be elected. Therefore, by simple linguistic interpretation, the formulation is cumulative, and both obstacles must exist for a candidate to be eliminated.“