The Association of Oil Companies of Montenegro (UNKCG) sent a letter to the Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro (PKCG) in which it protested that only representatives of oil companies with foreign ownership were elected to the Board of the Association of Energy and Mining, while none of the domestic ones received a representative.
Jugopetrol (Greece), INA (Croatia), Lukoil (Russia), Petrol (Slovenia) and Hifa oil (BiH) received representatives on the Board.
In the letter, which the newspaper had access to, it is stated that this is a continuation of PKCG’s deliberate ignoring of small and medium-sized Montenegrin companies for the sake of the interests of foreign companies, and that the goals are to stifle domestic companies and preserve the decade-long privileged position of the so-called big traders.
“Through such a reckless and non-transparent selection process for members of the Board, which was formed exclusively from representatives of foreign companies, regardless of the fact that they are the largest, the entire sector of small and medium-sized companies from the branch that deals with the trade of oil and oil derivatives, whose interests are in many respects, was perfidiously eliminated different from the interests of large corporations, so today we do not have a single local or Montenegrin company from small and medium business in that Board”, the letter stated.
Committees of PKCG participate in negotiations with the Government and relevant ministries on all important issues, participate in the development of strategies and plans for their areas, can propose initiatives, legal or by-law solutions.
Representatives of domestic companies are afraid that large companies will use such influence to further privilege their position, and make the work of domestic oil derivatives traders more difficult.