Introduction
The data of Real Estate Administration (REA) Bar that came to be known to MANS are indicative of suspicion that ZIB, assisted by the then Head of the REA Bar Novica Vučković[1], has unlawfully acquired land, i.e. that there were no legal grounds for the given property to be registered to ZIB.
The case file for the disputed plot no. 1913/2, cadastre municipality Zaljevo, Bar, does not contain any legally valid document based on which it would be possible to register the given plot to ZIB. What the case file does contain, though, is the encumbrance of restitution claims to the benefit of Smiljka Perazić and others, as well as the encumbrance placed by “Morsko dobro” (Coastal Zone Management, a public company). Moreover, over the years this property was several times encumbered with mortgage as a security for ZIB to be granted loans.
Location of the plot
How did ZIB acquire over 270,000 m2 of land?
By the decision of the Local Council of Bar in 1980 the disputed plot was designated as a quarry site and awarded for USE to the then state-owned company “Zavod za izgradnju Bara” justified by the public interest for rapid reconstruction of the Bar municipality following the disastrous earthquake in 1979. In addition to this, the case file also contains the decision by which ZIB was approved the construction of a quarry on the disputed plot, as well as the approval from 1981 issuing the certificate of occupancy for the quarry. Apart from these documents, the Bar cadastre office holds no other papers placing ZIB in connection with the land.
As a state-owned company, in 2000 ZIB was transformed into a share-holding company with a package of shares held by the then Executive Manager, Žarko Pavićević. According to the data held by the Central Depositary Agency, today Pavićević is the majority owner of ZIB, with a stake of over 53%.
Following the ZIB privatisation, upon their request, the REA Bar, in its decision of 10 July 2002, assigned the land and the buildings found on the disputed plot from the Municipality of Bar to ZIB, without a single document pursuant to which it would be legally possible. The case file for this plot does not contain any sale agreement between the Municipality and ZIB, nor any decision of any authority to make such assignment of land from the Municipality of Bar to Žarko Pavićević’s company lawful. There is no information as to whether Pavićević paid for this land and in what amount, or whether it was assigned to him free of charge and following which procedure. Such a decision simply assigning to Pavićević the title to over 270,000 m2 of land was verified by the then head of the Bar Cadastre Office Novica Vučković.
Afterwards, ZIB continued to use the land unobstructed, but also continued building new structures on the same plot, so that today there is the total of 16 such buildings erected on the disputed plot.
Loans and mortgages on a plot “free of any encumbrances”
Between 2008 and 2011, on several occasions ZIB put the disputed land as security for procuring loans of the total value close to 2 million euro. The first mortgage was put in October 2008 to procure a 400,000 euro worth a loan. Afterwards, in May 2005 ZIB raised another loan of 250,000 euro putting as security the same land.
ZIB took the following loan with the disputed plot used again as security in December 2009, for the amount of further 350,000 euro. The last in a row, and the largest to that, was taken in December 2010 in the amount of 900,000 euro.
All the loans were extended by the Atlas banka AD Podgorica, and all the Loan and Mortgage Agreements were signed on behalf of ZIB by Danijela Krković, Executive Manager, and on behalf of Atlas banka, by Mihailo Banjević, the Bank CEO.
The thing that is particularly dubious is that the company owned by the Mayor of Bar claimed in each case of concluding Mortgage Agreements that the lots bore no encumbrances or restrictions. Thus, all the pertinent agreements with Atlas banka describe the property subject to mortgage as land “owned by the Mortgagor, solely an exclusively, without any encumbrances or restrictions” although all pledged property had registered encumbrances. All 275.178m2 of land and 16 buildings are encumbered with restitution claims and by claims of Morsko dobro, indicating that ZIB, through its authorised representative, gave a false statement on essential features of the property mortgaged, thus misleading the Bank representatives that they enjoy full rights of title without encumbrances or restrictions over the disputed plot of land.
When concluding the Mortgage Agreement, the disputed land and buildings were evaluated by expert witness to be worth 2.8 million euro.
275,000 m2 of land is not enough?
In addition to the case described above, in 2004 ZIB attempted to register two more municipal plots, of total area over 5,000 m2, to its name. On the occasion, ZIB was rejected with the explanation they failed to accompany the given request with stipulation of legal grounds for assigning the property from the Municipality of Bar to ZIB.
[1] Novica Vučković is the head of the Cadastre Office in Bar who in 2002 enabled ZIB, the company owned by Žarko Pavićević, to register property rights to over 90,000 m2 of land owned by the Bar-based company “Tehnopromet B“, based on a null and void contract between the two companies.
