Podgorica (21 February 2011) – Today MANS submitted a request to the Parliamentary Commission for Monitoring the Privatization Process to undertake a review of the Privatization Council’s decision to issue a long-term lease for Valdanos Bay to a British company, Cubus Lux, and whether or not it was carried out in a transparent way and in accordance with the law.
Along with the submission, MANS also submitted to members of the Commission all relevant documentation relating to Cubus Lux and once again pointed to all the violations of the tender procedure that preceded the decision of the Privatization Council to grant the long-term lease for Valdanos to this British company.
We asked that the Commission also investigate the entirety of the tender documentation as well as Cubus Lux’s winning bid. MANS has drawn attention to the company’s financial statements which demonstrate that this company could not have qualified for the tender and that members of the Tender Commission, headed by Vujica Lazović, violated the rules of the tender procedure.
MANS has therefore asked that the Commission hold hearings with Vice President Vujica Lazović who was the president of the Privatization Council at the time so that he could explain how the tender for Valdanos unfolded.
Besides Lazović, MANS also suggested that the hearings include the current president of the Privatization Council, Prime Minister Igor Lukšić, since MANS already familiarized him with all the details of the Valdanos case last week.
Unfortunately, since an adequate reaction from the highest ranking addresses in the government is still lacking, we believe that the conditions are ripe for the Parliament of Montenegro to use its regulatory powers and take a stance in relation to the government’s actions and those of its bodies in the Valdanos case.
MANS wants the Council to make an official recommendation that the Privatization Council convene a session within 15 days in which the decision to grant the Valdanos tender to Cubus Lux be annulled.
In the past ten days, MANS publicly released a series of facts and unassailable evidence that indicates that the Valdanos tender was carried out in a non-transparent manner, accompanied by serious violations of the law and tender procedures. We also filed criminal charges against Vice President Vujica Lazović concerning the abuse of office in this case. The financial statements of Cubus Lux have been submitted to the current president of the Privatization Council, Igor Lukšić, though an official reaction from that address is still pending.
We believe that the Parliament of Montenegro now has an opportunity to demonstrate that its regulatory function over the executive authority exists not simply in theory and that there actually is political will in Parliament for sanctioning those incidents where the rule of law is violated (as in the Valdanos tender).
