Podgorica, 21 January 2011 – Former Urban Planning Minister Branimir Gvozdenović has failed to adequately respond to any of the criminal charges filed against him yesterday by MANS. The charges relate to his abuse of administrative positions in overseeing the Zavala affair in Budva and the illegal construction projects of Bar’s mayor Žarko Pavićević.
MANS has continuously followed and criticized the work of the Urban Planning Ministry, not due to a ‘conspiracy’ against Gvozdenović as he claims, but simply as a result of his sadly catastrophic results in implementing urban zoning laws and regulations.
Former Minister Gvozdenović is well aware that his avoidance of accountability until now has little to do with a lack of proof, but that it has largely depended on the lack of political will by the Prosecutor’s Office to process obvious violations of the law.
Gvozdenović left his ministerial position after “counting” 100,000 illegally built objects, meaning that there is an abundance of proof for pursuing the charges against him.
Crucial pieces of evidence relating to the Zavala case in Budva and the illegal construction projects of Bar’s mayor are very straightforward and are included in the documentation that MANS delivered yesterday to the Prosecutor. The former minister’s nervousness is therefore completely understandable since is not used to being held accountable for his deeds.
Instead of inventing conspiracy theories, Gvozdenović should explain to the public – and later to the State Prosecutor – how he managed to ‘legalize’ illegally built objects and what exactly his ministry was doing for a whole year while construction continued at Zavala. All that time, the former minister knew that the documentation he signed does not correspond to the situation on the ground and that construction works at Zavala had begun earlier.
As for illegal construction in Bar, it would be nice if the former minister could explain how the building being built by Žarko Pavićević’s company could have ‘grown’ to 7-floors (i.e. 2-floors more than planned). He could also explain what he did to sanction such a violation of zoning regulations and how he managed to give his assent later to the DUP ‘Toplica’ plan that incorporated the building into its zoning.
Above all, Gvozdenović could also explain how he managed to issue an additional construction permit for the same object legalizing the additional floors Pavićević had built in contravention of the original plan. In spite of claims made by the former minister that everything was clean and transparent under his watch, MANS has still yet to obtain the construction permit for the building in question nearly a year after it began making such requests.
In line with all of the above, we suggest in all sincerity that the former minister not waste his energy in defending the indefensible, but to instead bravely accept the fact that he will soon have to answer before the courts for his actions.
Dejan Milovac
Deputy Executive Director
