(Podgorica, 10 November 2011) – Yesterday MANS filed additional criminal charges against Žarko Pavićević, alleging abuse of office in awarding the Bar overpass contract to Bemax. Even though MANS submitted clear evidence to back the allegations – also released to the public – both Pavićević and Bemax’s director Veselin Kovačević failed to deny our assertions.
It is impossible to deny the fact that the initial public procurement call clearly stipulated that the contract would not include advance payments, nor was any mention made of the Transportation Department as a co-financier in this project. All documents during the tender stated that the Municipality of Bar was the end client and that the required funds had been secured from the municipal budget. Two months after the conclusion of the tender, and the selection of Bemax, Žarko Pavićević concluded a co-financing agreement with the Transportation Department and a contract with Bemax which granted the company an advance.
None of the other bidders knew that the Transportation Department would be a co-financier, or that advance payments were a possibility (since the initial public procurement call explicitly stated that no advance payments would be made).
Another question left unanswered is why the Transportation Department needed to become involved in this project in the first place, since the winner was already been selected and the required funds had ostensibly been secured from the municipal budget (according to the tender documentation).
Furthermore, there exists a well-founded suspicion that the Municipality of Bar consciously entered into this project fully aware of the many unresolved property rights issues along the overpass route. These property questions essentially rendered the deadline for completing the project meaningless.
Additionally, the municipality never stated exactly how overdue the project’s completion was in the end (nor did anyone pay a penalty for overstepping the deadline by half-a-year). It is not known whether the delay was solely caused by unresolved property rights issues or due to mismanagement on Bemax’s part. Furthermore, it still remains unclear whether anyone in the municipal administration will answer for issuing a tender call without previously establishing the necessary preconditions on the ground.
The degree of legality and transparency of the whole procedure is illustrated by the fact that Žarko Pavićević and Veselin Grbović officially opened the overpass without obtaining the necessary use permit beforehand. Not to mention the fact that during most of the time the overpass was being built, the municipality lacked a construction permit (another criminal offense).
Given all of the above, there exist reasonable grounds to allege that Pavićević openly favored Bemax, and that together with the Transportation Department deliberately misled the tender’s other bidders. This was done in order to ensure that Bemax would win the tender and that it could then be granted more favorable contractual terms.
There is no longer any doubt that Žarko Pavićević is unable to lawfully manage the Municipality of Bar or its finances. We therefore again call upon the Prosecutor’s Office and the police to step up their investigations of Pavićević to prevent him from further harming the public interest (and to disable any potential attempts to influence the availability of evidence and witnesses).
