(Podgorica, 4 February 2012) – The Restis Group has breached its lease and engaged in illegal construction. MANS has just submitted evidence to support these allegations to the Special Prosecutor for corruption and organized crime asking that the representatives of this company respond (including the ministers of the Government of Montenegro that enabled this behavior).
The main leasing agreement for Sveti Stefan, concluded with Aman Resorts in early 2007, set a 30 June 2008 deadline for the completion of the hotel. This deadline was not met nor have subsequent deadlines set by the former Minister or Tourism Predrag Nenezić or his successor Predrag Sekulić been respected. In mid-2009, the lease agreement was taken over by the Restis Group, while the deadline for opening the hotel was moved back once again to the summer of 2010. Minister Nenezić claimed that in so far as the hotel wasn’t open by then, the government would sever its agreement with the lessee. This obviously did not happen since Restis only formally opened the hotel in July 2010 only to immediately close it down in order to continue its renovation (naturally, without any sanctions for violating the agreement).
The last annex of the main contract was signed with the Restis Group and the deadline for the official opening was moved to 15 June 2011, which also wasn’t met. Again, Restis suffered no sanctions as a result.
As for illegal construction, the Inspectorate for Spatial Protection adopted a decision on 10 May 2010 for the demolition of illegally built structures that was never implemented. This is because Budva City Council adopted a retroactive legalization that enabled these structures to be classified as ‘temporary buildings.’ Nobody from Restis has ever had to answer for the criminal act of illegal construction, which is a privilege that they probably wouldn’t have enjoyed in any other country in which they do business.
Similarly, the debt owed to the Budvan Riviera on the lease definitely constitutes a violation of the contract – regardless of how it is interpreted by the Restis Group and what kinds of justifications they try to use to get rid of it. The debts that the Budvan Riviera has towards Restis aren’t part of the lease agreement, nor is it known how these came about, unless there exist some annexes to the Agreement with which the public is not familiar (something the prosecutor should address).
The problem of the disputed church at Sveti Stefan, which the Restis Group claims was a problem is also a manipulation of the facts since it popped up as an issue only after key deadlines were violated (by both Aman and later Restis). As a result, any disagreement around this object cannot be used as an excuse in explaining why Sveti Stefan – one of the most recognizable locations on the Montenegrin coast – has been closed for five years straight.
Finally, the Restis Group isn’t the biggest problem in this whole story, since we have many Restis Groups, Mirax’s etc. dotting the landscape. The problem lies with the Government of Montenegro, which repeatedly allows investors to breach agreements, to not pay their leases and to illegally build throughout. The problem is in the ministers who didn’t do their jobs and failed to adequately protect the public interest. They failed to annul privatization agreements with investors who for years had been violating the laws and regulations of this country.
It is for this reason that MANS has initiated criminal proceedings against ministers Nenezić, Sekulić and Branimir Gvozdenović – since it is precisely these people who can answer why Aman and Restis were allowed to get away with violating laws and how it was possible that they were relieved of any responsibility for doing so.
The current situation is such that Sveti Stefan, even after five years, is still not open and that no one, even on the side of investors or on the side of the Government of Montenegro didn’t answer for this. For this reason we believe that someone eventually must pay the bill for these deals, but that this shouldn’t be the citizens of Montenegro but those who made deals with Restis and who turned a blind eye while he violated the law and built illegally.
In this regard, we expect the prosecutor to urgently investigate everything that has happened in the Sveti Stefan case, and whether or not there are further ties linking Aman, Restis and high-ranking Montenegrin officials than those stipulated in the Agreement.
