MANS invites citizens to attend campaign “The Fall of the Montenegrin economy” during which we will present the current state of the once successful economy in the center and south of Montenegro, which is destroyed through privatization and bankruptcy. On this occasion we will offer to the citizens legal assistance to submit initiatives to the Parliament and to request that the legislative branch deals with privatization or bankruptcy of their companies in order to determine responsibility for any failure, to report corruption in restructuring of their businesses, and to request necessary information from the relevant state authorities.
This is a continuation of the action that started last winter when MANS presented the state of the economy in the north of Montenegro, which is most affected by the criminal privatization and bankruptcy, during which significant assets are disposed, workers are forced out into the street, and the bankruptcy trustees and privileged individuals were the only ones who had a significant financial benefits from such procedures. Unfortunately, the situation is also similar with former state companies in central and southern part of Montenegro.
Privatization through bankruptcy proceedings in the south were conducted in a non-transparent way and left the majority of companies in a messy situations. After implemented bankruptcy proceedings , hotels and factories in the south are mostly ended up being locked, movable and immovable property was snapped by the new owners, and not a small number of companies have collapsed or flattened. All these companies are sold to new owners for almost nothing, after which they earned a price dozens of times higher than the assets of privatized companies – selling land at enormously high prices or placing mortgages on their multimillion-dollar loans that are not returned at the end.
In fact, the hotels “HTP Boka” from Herceg Novi after privatization by Vektra Montenegro slowly eroded, so the hotel “Tamaris” was demolished, the hotel “Igalo” is devastated, the motel “Borici”, located in inland of Herceg Novi, has become a refuge for cattle, and in the motel “Dubrava” shelter found shelter homeless poeple. Although it did not destroyed, the hotel “Fjord” from Kotor is locked for years after privatization. The new owners in the public followed a series of doubts about the business, and even the Directorate for Prevention of Money Laundering investigated whether the Irish businessman Michael Finglton when buying the hotel “Fjord” laundered 5.5 million Euros. And the company from Ulcinj, once perhaps the most important company ” Solana Bajo Sekulic” has experienced the fate in two bankruptcies. “Solana” was sold through bankruptcy in 2006, according to previously published data, for about 800 thousand Euros, and it bankrupted again in 2011 under the new owner. By purchasing “Solana” new owner got company which covers an area of 14.5 square kilometers and which now sells for more than 200 million Euros.
For all the companies before the bankruptcy and privatization was announced that they will be revitalized and that after that process the companies will work even in the increased capacity and will hire new workers. However, this did not happen in most cases, the companies are either demolished and replaced by residential buildings, or they still gaping desolate, empty and locked. The former workers are still waiting for payment of arrears, the connection of employment status, and continuously trying to find out what happened to the assets of the companies in whose creation they have contributed.
Despite the fact that a large number of former state-owned companies and the hotel are destroyed, it is not known whether any of those responsible bear any consequences. Moreover, many bankruptcy trustees and judges after this “successful” privatization through bankruptcy proceedings led the cases of other companies who generally had the same fate.
Therefore, Montenegro remains the only country in the region that has never dealt with this aspect of corruption, unlike other countries which have processed their own bankruptcy mafia. In order to force the competent authorities to finally take some steps and determine responsibility for this situation in hotels and factories in coastal municipalities and municipalities in the central part of Montenegro, MANS will organize, in the next two days, information stands to help citizens to seek control hearings in the Parliament for those responsible for the situation in their company, to report to the police and prosecution cases of privatization or bankruptcies, or to obtain information they need related to their companies.
In addition to legal aid, citizens will be able to see, on the squares, the photos of companies from their city and neighboring cities as a reminder of how they are privatized and what is now left of profitable hotels and factories in the south. Events will be organized in the following cities and time:
Monday, January 26th:
Herceg Novi at 10:00 am – on the main square
Ulcinj at 10:00 am – in front of the Cultural Center
Tivat at 1:00 pm – at promenade Pine
Bar at 1:00 pm – in front of department stores
Tuesday, January 27 th:
Kotor at 10:00 am- at the entrance to the Old City
Cetinje at 10:00 am – on the main square
Budva at 1:00 pm – nearby the Post
Danilovgrad at 1:00 pm – on the main square
MANS
