Special State Prosecutor's Office indicts Bošković, Filipović and Drobnjak over alleged €168,000 damage to the state budget

Montenegro's Special State Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment against former Defence Minister Predrag Bošković, former State Secretary Slobodan Filipović, and former Head of the Ministry of Defence's Financial Operations Department Marko Drobnjak on suspicion that, acting as co-perpetrators between 2018 and 2020, they committed the continued criminal offence of abuse of office, causing an estimated €168,000 in damage to the state budget.

According to the SSPO, the indictment has been submitted to the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica. The offence with which the three defendants are charged carries a prison sentence of between one and eight years.

The indictment alleges that Bošković and Filipović issued decisions allocating financial assistance to certain non-governmental and sports organisations in violation of the Law on Non-Governmental Organisations and the Law on Sports.

According to the prosecution, those laws require that funding for NGOs and sports organisations be awarded through a public call and a procedure conducted by a commission established by the relevant state authority, based on prescribed eligibility criteria. Instead, the defendants allegedly approved funding on the basis of written requests, or, in some cases, even without any request being submitted.

Drobnjak is accused of ordering payments under what the prosecution describes as unlawful decisions and certifying payment requests subsequently submitted to the State Treasury.

- Together, they obtained unlawful financial benefit for non-governmental and sports organisations while causing damage exceeding €168,000 to the Budget of Montenegro - the Special State Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.