(Podgorica, 17 august 2012) – The multiyear construction of the Risan-Zabljak road was obviously a welcoming space for multiple violations of the Public Procurement Law, while the State Prosecutor’s should in the shortest possible time confirm whether and to what extent corruption was present in this contract. The multiyear contract was divided into several phases, and the contract developed through individual tenders for the carrying out of works on various parts of the road.
The Traffic Directorate has already violated existing laws and regulations when it came to working with Bemax in the building of one of the roads, while information obtained by MANS indicates that the building of additional lanes on the Risan-Zabljak route were accompanied by multiple violations of the law.
Information concerning the building of the Risan-Zabljak route that relate to the segment dealing with the “Entry into the Ivica Tunnel / Moticki Gaj” indicates that the Traffic Directorate violated the Public Procurement Law not only during the Call for Tenders, but also during the choice of the most favorable offer.
The Traffic Directorate, in early February 2008, announced a Call for an Open Procedure for Public Procurement, including the segment of the Risan-Zabljak route dealing with the Ivica Tunnel and Moticki Gaj. The call stated that the estimated value of the public procurement contract was €16-million and that the financing would come from Montenegro’s state budget.
Three offers were received by the Traffic Directorate, though none of these was within the value limits imposed by the call. The most favorable of these was the offer submitted by Austria’s PORR Technobau und Umwelt Atiengeselshaft, which offered a contract worth €21.2-million for completion of the task (i.e. €5-million above the price listed on the tender call). The Directorate was legally allowed to annul the tender and requested the resubmission of tenders closer to the budgeted amount, but it failed to do so.
Besides the above, after the agreement with PORR was concluded, Annex 1 (27.06.2008) stipulated that the payment will be carried out over a 7 year period after the signing of the agreement on the basis of quarterly installments. Since this was agreed to following the signing of the contract with the top ranked company, this information wasn’t available to all bidders (again violating the Public Procurement Law and parts thereof relating to transparency and competition).
Besides this, the call previously had stated that every bidder had to furnish proof that they had access to credits or other financial means that were sufficient to secure the necessary liquidity for the project and that these amounts should (at the very least) match the value of the contract. PORR submitted evidence that it had access to €17.5-million in financing (even though its bid offer was valued at €21.2-million). This means that the guarantee on offer was less than €3.5-million. This on its own should have raised red flags about PORR’s offer, once again violating the Public Procurement Law.
Eventually, the Traffic Directorate in mid-2010 concluded one more Annex with PORR that places the price of the contract at €20.9-million (after VAT). If we add the VAT worth €3.6-million we can see that the full price of the contract is actually €24.5-million euros (again €3-million more than the initial offer). The eventual price of the contract is therefore €8-million higher that the initial offer that was determined by budgetary criteria.
As a result of the above, MANS submitted in late July criminal charges against Veselin Grbovic, the director of the Traffic Directorate; Zorica Bozovic; Vlatka Cipranic; Miodrag Bakrac; Lela Soskic and Jelica Boskovic (all the members of the Commission for the Valuation of Tender Offers within the Traffic Directorate).
The above example, in addition to the one involving Bemax, is the second case dealing with contracts relating to the Risan-Zabljak route. What joins these cases is that the agreed upon price for the contracts was far above the initial call, thus requiring millions of euros in further budgetary spending than originally planned.
