(Podgorica, 26 January 2012) – Prime Minister Igor Lukšić must explain to Montenegro’s public what the main reason for his trip to Morocco was at the expense of a private company. He should also explain why his government has continuously deceived the public when it comes to the case of Aman and Sveti Stefan – tied to that same company that paid the Morocco trip – instead of requiring that its ‘strategic’ partners in this deal respect the laws of our country.
The contract that was signed in 2006 between the Ministry of Tourism, HTP Budvanska
Riviera AD, Aman and the company Adriatic Properties specified that the government (that is the Ministry) has the responsibility of guaranteeing loans taken out by the lessee of the Sveti Stefan hotel. Yesterday’s announcement by the government did not deny the fact that this was the absolute priority in the case that the investor was late with the return of rental payments, which annually amount to €2-million.
The loan that the ‘strategic partner’ took out could not be realized without the Government, and it is interesting that at the signing of the lease contract for the Hotel Sveti Stefan, Miločer and Kraljičina Plaža (The Queen’s Beach) the government undertook to guarantee the loan on the investment.
Specifically, Article 33 of the lease agreement clearly stipulates the obligations of the lessor (the Ministry of Tourism) towards the lessee (Adriatic Properties) with respect to creditors and loan guarantees.
Even though the hotels mentioned in the lease were leased to the “strategic” investor so that they could invest their capital in the reconstruction of the hotels and collect from them for a 30 year period, it is unclear why the government had already committed to obtaining a loan guarantee for the modernization of the hotel.
This raises a valid question, if it had already decided to guarantee the loan why didn’t the government undertake the whole project on its own, so that all citizens and the entirety of the tourism sector could benefit from such investments.
Instead we now have a lessee that breaks agreements, which means that the hotels aren’t working for the fifth year in a row now, while the Government has simply continued to support the Greek company. Thus, the signing of the support agreement allowed the lessee new deadlines for the realization of the project and it appeared as a guarantor for a loan from the EBRD.
Although the government now says that in case of failure to meet loan obligations they would seek a third partner, which would take over the obligations of the Greek company, it intentionally leaves out the fact that this process could last a long time and even lead to complete failure. This means that the obligations towards the EBRD would be serviced by the Government, that is us as taxpayers.
Similarly, the current situation with the “strategic” partner shows that they are already unable to service all their obligations undertaken through this investment, since they already owe over €1-million euros in rent. Delayed payments of the lease is one of the conditions for terminating the contract, which means that the government could immediately end the agreement with this Greek company if it wanted to.
The government has not taken any steps against this Greek company due to the open violation of the lease agreement, illegal construction and suspicious financial statements.
It is obvious that the government has no serious strategy for this investment, which was once presented as one of its leading investments, other than ensuring that the interests of Aman and the Restis Group and their related companies are protected with taxpayers’ money.
Dejan Milovac
Deputy Executive Director
