MANS today filed a criminal complaint against Snežana Raičević, the Secretary of the Secretariat for Urban Planning in Kotor, for alleged violations of the Law on Spatial Planning in handing out construction permits and for the abuse of her position in order to obtain benefits for third parties.
The criminal complaint is based on the illegal construction permits extended by Raičević to two Kotor-based firm: “Alseir properties” (for the building of two facilities in Risan), and; “Premia” for building a tripartite structure in Dobrota.
In both cases, Secretary Raičević displayed the same pattern of behavior, allowing these investors to erect larger objects than allowed under applicable urban plans and zoning requirements.
The building permit obtained by “Alseir properties” was issued in late 2009. The permit exceeds the stipulations of the Detailed Urban Plan (DUP) for Risan, as well as violating the allotment plan. In fact, it allows the firm to build on its designated plot more than envisaged under the DUP.
As a result of the intervention of zoning inspectors, the responsible Ministry was forced to revoke the building permit in late September 2010.
Unfortunately, the year that it took to establish that the permit was issued irregularly allowed the owners to smoothly complete their construction projects.
Furthermore, the company “Alseir properties” managed to violate the illegally issued permit by building an extra floor than was allowed under the permit. By the investor’s own admission – which is being represented by lawyer Ana Kolarević, the sister of the former Prime Minister – the index of maximal development on the lots was exceeded by 18% or some 150 m2 in total for both buildings.
It is particularly interesting that Kolarević stated on that occasion that: “departures from the DUP are not excessive enough to require the annulment of the decision, especially since changes in the DUP will allow the incorporation of the completed buildings [into the plan].” This statement explicitly acknowledges that “Alseir Properties” was illegally building in contravention of the permit, but also underscores the model of behavior followed by a large number of investors – i.e. building first and then seeking to retroactively legalize their projects.
It is for these reasons that MANS has decided to file a criminal complaint against the owner and CEO of “Alseir properties,” owned by Russian citizen Sergei Natalenko, on suspicion that he committed a criminal offense by building in contravention of the issued permit.
The situation is identical to the case of a building permit that Raičević issued to “Premia” in mid-October 2010 for construction projects on an area covering 1,536 m2. For the same object, Raičević specified a number of conditions, including a 1,500 m2 limit for building. This highlights that this permit was also issued contrary to the planning documentation, or in this case in contravention of the DUP for Dobrota.
MANS calls on the State Prosecutor to immediately review our criminal complaints and to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Snežana Raičević acted similarly in other cases involving the issuing of permits, thereby extending the investigation to those cases as well.
Ines Mrdović
Programme assistant for sustainable development
