Belgrade, Jan 3, 2006 – Serbian Minister of Interior Dragan Jocic said that citizens in Serbia need to know why the mobile telephone operator Mobtel has not been paying out dividends to the state for more than a decade, or whether any attempt at illegal money making has been hidden behind it.

Jocic said that the Ministry of Interior has been receiving information on possible unlawful dealings in Mobtel for some time now, specifying that the information refer to different means of misuse and imply that Mobtel has caused considerable damage to the state.

According to Jocic, the initial indication that Mobtel has issued licence for performing telecommunication activities in Kosovo-Metohija to the company Mobikos without the Serbian government's consent, enabling Mobikos owner Ekrem Luka to use state resources, turned out to be a grounded truth.

In a statement to the Tanjug news agency, Jocic said that apart from the information on the existence of a contract between Mobtel and Ekrem Luka, the ministry has also received information from the officials of the postal company PTT Srbija that it is almost certain that Mobtel, by misstating it operates without profit, has caused damage to the state worth several hundreds million euros.

"According to the information that the ministry received, Mobtel has not paid out a single dinar of dividends to the state since the company's foundation in 1994. Therefore, Mobtel's misrepresentation of business dealings has recently come under a lot of scrutiny", said Jocic and added that the important information has been received from the police of an EU country, and that it needs to be most carefully examined before any concrete action is taken.

As Jocic said, during the investigation, the ministry has also obtained testimonies providing significant data for continuation of proceeding. The ministry is now thoroughly prepared for taking further actions in discovering any possible financial damage that Mobtel has caused to the state. Jocic recalled that he has every confidence in a head of the special team he appointed to lead this case, adding that he also firmly believes the police will professionally fulfill the appointed task.

"When we take into account all the past and future activities of the ministry, we can unequivocally say that this one will be one of the largest police investigations concerning possible criminal dealings in the sector of economy," said the minister and stressed that at the end of the day citizens in Serbia deserve to know, if allegations prove right, why and how Mobtel has managed to avoid paying dividends to the state and whether that resulted in any illegal way of money making.
Source: Government of the Republic of Serbia