Thus, anyone who carefully reads or listens to press releases of the Montenegrin government is now convinced that brokers, instead of taking a provision, are paying to the local government for the privilege of selling its property. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to explain the assertion that Montenegro has earned from the sale of the airplane $200,000 more than the sale price!?
Namely, the government claims that the airplane was sold for $12.4 million. Further, the press release explains that the buyer took over the $9.6 million Montenegroairlines debt to the Dutch airline KLM, while $3 million were paid to the state treasury. Thus, Montenegro all together earned $12.6 million.
Every group of adults that manages to earn as much as $200,000 simply by writing a short paragraph is either boasting with unprecedented business acumen or unprecedented ignorance as far as mathematics is concerned.
In this specific case, we most likely are dealing with both factors, strengthened by the characteristics that were shared by all Montenegrin governments in the last ten years. Namely, the local authorities, both current and past, are underestimating the memory of their subjects, breaking the law whenever they find it appropriate and either do not understand or ignore basic principles of economics.
If it were different, the last week's government's press release would have included several necessary explanations. First, why was the airplane sold at the moment when, according to the press release, "the price of aircraft has fallen due to recent events in the US"? Who, when and why, decided to use three quarters of money earned through sale of state property to subsidize a privately owned company, even if it is the only local Montenegrin airline?
At the time when, because of unprecedented crisis in air transportation, even Swiss Air was forced to declare bankruptcy, Montenegro uses almost 5 percent of state budget for this year to pay the debt of Montenegro airlines. As if the state budget was overflowing. At the same time, Kotor "Jugooceania" is sinking (losing its ships) since it is unable to repay its debt of $7.5 million.
Finally, or to start with, the Montenegrin government still owes us the explanation how much and with what money it paid the recently sold airplane two years ago.
Let us leave aside the fact that the recently sold "Cessna" was one of the pillars of the Nacional scandal. Let us consider only the financial aspect of that transaction. The only, so far available data indicate that in 1999 the Montenegrin government bought for $17.5 million the "Cessna" it sold two years later for $12.4 (or $12.6) million. Who is responsible for the loss of $5 million in only one transaction?
Neither was the purchase entered in the budget for 1999, nor was the sale of the airplane envisaged in this year's budget. Therefore, the Montenegrin parliament did not approve the government's sale of the airplane. If Montenegro were a state with the rule of law, its citizens would already know whether the responsibility of Prime Minister Filip Vujoanovic and his government for that, obviously bad transaction, was moral, political, or perhaps even criminal.
However, Montenegro is still not a state, let alone a state with the rule of law. That is why the local politicians and their economic favorites can without obstacles keep pushing us towards bankruptcy.