January 28 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's government decided to dismiss the board of directors of majority state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) [BEL:EPCG] due to conflict of interest of its president, capital investments minister Mladen Bojanic said.
"In December, the government received a decision of the anti-corruption agency which clearly states that EPCG president Djoko Krivokapic was consciously in a conflict of interest for a period of three years," Bojanic said in a video file posted on the website of public broadcaster RTCG late on Wednesday.
"We decided to go for the dismissal of all members of the board of directors and then we discovered they had refused to act at the request of the owner of 99% of the company's capital," Bojanic said.
According to local media reports, the board of directors of EPCG has denied the government request to convene an extraordinary shareholders meeting on February 25, citing articles in the country's corporate law.
According to an excerpt of the anti-corruption agency's decision posted by Bojanic in his Twitter profile on Thursday, Krivokapic had violated the country's anti-corruption law as he was named board member of Prva Banka in November 2017 while still holding the position of president of EPCG.
EPCG owns the entire capital of Prva Banka but according to Montenegro's anti-graft law, a manager at a state-owned company is banned from being member of the executive body of any other legal entity.
"Back in 2017, he had to resign from the position of president of the board of directors of EPCG. However, acting contrary to legal provisions, in addition to the salary of president of the board of directors of EPCG, during the period of conflict of interest he earned 34,405 euro ($41,662) paid by Prva Banka," Bojanic said in his Twitter profile.
($ = 0.825816 euro)