The Minister of Finance, Aleksandar Damjanović, announced that a number of legal changes are underway, which will result in a significant reduction in the rate of the gray economy.
He emphasized that by strengthening personnel and material resources in the competent administrations, work is being done to establish a better system of supervision over the company’s operations, while maintaining a register of real owners in accordance with international regulations.
Damjanović attended the introductory meeting with the expert team of evaluators of the Committee of the Council of Europe for the assessment of the application of measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing (Moneyval-Manival). As part of the mission, that team will collect information and conduct the Fifth Round of Evaluation of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing System in Montenegro (SPNFT) by March 17, through discussions with competent state authorities and the private sector.
“The goal of the mission is to assess the compliance of the national legislative framework with international standards in this area, as well as to determine the degree of effectiveness of the SPNFT system of the member states of the Council of Europe in Montenegro,” the statement of the Ministry states.
Damjanović, speaking at the opening of the evaluation, gave a brief overview of the range of assessment that is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, which refers to the areas of misuse of companies for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing, establishment and management of the register of real ownership of companies, as well as control of games on happiness and the risks that this area carries in terms of money laundering.
He recalled that the fiscalization system was introduced, which enables the prevention of abuses, and that the position of the IT profession in the public administration system improved, by correcting the coefficients on earnings.
Damjanović added that intensive work is being done to strengthen cooperation between institutions, which is why a joint team was formed to monitor evaluations and recommendations in order to prevent misuse of companies for money laundering and terrorist financing.
The meeting with the team of evaluators was also attended by the Minister of Internal Affairs Filip Adžić, Governor of the Central Bank (CBCG) Radoje Žugić, Acting Supreme State Prosecutor Tatjana Begović and Director of the Police Administration Zoran Brđanin.
“The results of the assessment of the Montenegrin SPNFT system are extremely important for our country and its position in this working body of the Council of Europe, the EGMONT group, as well as for the process of accession to the European Union (EU),” the announcement concludes.
