(Podgorica, 25 March 2012) – The upcoming session of the Municipal Assembly of Budva this Tuesday (27 March 2012) will once again consider a document that proposes to legalize illegally built objects in the Miločer Park that were erected by the Restis Group in Sveti Stefan.
This continues the practice of absolving privileged investors of their violations of the law, as well as failing to hold accountable all those who allowed this to happen.
One of the agenda items at the forthcoming municipal assembly meeting will be a draft Plan for Temporary Buildings in the Municipality of Budva, which recommends extending the permits for two “temporary objects” that the Restis Group has illegally built.
The “temporary objects” of the investor are two buildings that span a total of 1,500 m2 and that are made from durable materials. There is no doubt that these buildings were subsequently designated as ‘temporary’ only because there was no way they could be incorporated into the existing zoning plans for Sveti Stefan. As a result, MANS submitted criminal charges against several officials in the Budva municipality.
In January, MANS submitted criminal charges against several former and current ministers, as well as members of the Restis Group and the Municipality of Budva. Because of his toleration of violations of the leasing agreement, a complaint was filed against the former and current Ministers of Tourism, Predrag Nenezić and Predrag Sekulić. A similar complaint was made against former Minister of Urban Planning Branimir Gvozdenović. A complaint due to illegal building was also submitted against Restis Group representatives.
In the meantime, the Restis Group has yet to open the hotel it has acquired the lease for, even though all the set deadlines have been violated for a long time. They are also late with their lease payments, but are nevertheless requesting a reduction in the lease because they claim to have lost money because the hotel hasn’t started to work! Instead of immediately annulling the contract with such an investor, the government has assigned Predrag Sekulić the task of entering into negotiations with this company. This further confirms our suspicions that there is no serious attempt being made to ensure that the Restis Group respects the laws of this country.
MANS has already requested on several occasions that the Montenegrin judiciary immediately process the criminal charges we’ve filed in order to prevent further damage to the public interest and to the state budget (though we’ve only received silence from the courts). Silence also greeted the fact that the deal between the Restis Group and the state involved the “most famous sister,” Ana Kolarević (Milo Djukanović’s sister), who is representing the Restis group. Her name has also been associated with other failed or controversial privatization deals, like those of the Nikšić Steelworks and Montenegrin Telekom.
Unfortunately, while Montenegro’s courts remain silent, bad deals with investors continue to be made, laws and regulations are violated, etc. Thus by adopting the mentioned Plan, the Restis Group will continue to enjoy privileged status, while the Ministers that have enabled such violations of the law will continue to avoid accountability.
For this reason, MANS would like to call on municipal councillors in Budva to refuse to participate in criminal acts that aim to protect the private interests of investors and associated figures from the government and their family members. We recommend that municipal councillors vote against the Plan.
We also call upon the Montenegrin Prosecutor’s Office to break with its tolerance of crime and prevent the further destruction of state resources, since it’s high time that the law begins to trump organized crime in this country.
