Podgorica, 17 December 2010 – Today a group of citizens submitted two complaints to the Administrative Court and the Ministry of Economy. They are asking for the annulment of the Concession Act and the pre-qualification tender for the hydropower stations on the Morača river, since they were introduced in a way that violates the Concession Law.
The complaint was filed by a group of citizens that includes Dejan Milovac and Ines Mrdović from MANS, Žarko Rakčević and Dejan Mijović from Foruma 2010 and Darko Pajović and Jelena Marojević from Green Home. It is also the first time in Montenegro that a party in an Administrative Court case calls upon the Aarhus Convention. This convention guarantees the participation of the public in decesion-making and mandates legal protections when it comes to environmental questions.
The complaint accuses the Ministry of Economy of violating the Concession Law for its vagueness in defining the subject of the concession, instead of precisely defining it as required by law.
Furthermore, the law was also flagrantly violated when the Ministry called upon an invalid document – i.e. the Detailed Spatial Plan for Multipurpose Reservoirs on the Morača – that has yet to be adopted and has no legal force.
Similarly, even though the Proposal of the Detailed Spatial Plan only mentioned Technical Solution I for the hydropower stations on the Morača, the Ministry added Technical Solution II to the Concession Act. In this way the Ministry left open alternative possibilities that can be suggested by the future concession-holder. This measure confirms suspicions that the capacities of the future hydropower plants on the Morača will depend on the profit-motive of the concession holder.
These two technical solutions have not gone through public hearings nor were they worked out in the Draft Detailed Spatial Plan and the Strategic Impact Assessment, which means that there was no legal basis to include them within the concessionary procedure.
Similarly, the Ministry drew on an study that was allegedly prepared by the University of the Mediterranean in making its case during the public hearings on the Draft Concession Act. Representatives of the University later announced that their institution had not authored that study. Following the end of the public hearings, the Ministry went on to present completely different economic data in the Concession Act documents. It then went on to claim that the information was prepared by an – until then unknown – team of experts. In this way the public was knowingly being misled since it was presented with unrealistic (and positive) projections relating to the building of hydropower stations on the Morača.
The complaint also seeks the annulment of the pre-qualification tender for the hydropower stations, given that the Ministry also violated procedural norms and made substantive errors in law when it issued its Request for Proposals (RFP) from qualified bidders (released on November 19 of this year).
In the Public Pre-Qualification Notice, released on 26 February 2010, the scope of the concession is defined as: “using part of the hydropower potential of the Morača by buildling hydropower stations in Andrijevo, Raslovići, Milunovići and in Zlatica, with a total output of 238.4 MW and an estimated average annual production of 693.7 GWh.Ć
However, in the RFP made on 18 November 2010, potential bidders are called upon to submit bids on Basic Technical Solution I, Basic Technical Solution II and an alternative technical solution.
From this it can be seen that the Ministry defined one concession subject in its Public Notice only to significantly alter the rules of procedure concerning the concession’s subject later-on. It thus violated the principles of transparency and competition that are defined under the Concession Law.
Because of these drastic violations of legal procedures, we have suggested that public hearings be organized before the Administrative Court, where we will request the annulment of the Concessionary Act and the Pre-Qualification Tender for the hydropower stations on the Morača.
Bearing in mind that this is a case of undoubted public interest, we expect that the Administrative Court will immediately process our complaint and schedule public hearings.
Dejan Milovac
Ines Mrdović
Žarko Rakčević
Dejan Mijović
Darko Pajović
Jelena Marojević
