Criminal offenses that former President of Bar, Zarko Pavicevic is charged with are only a small portion of the material contained in the processing of the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime and Corruption, and we expect that the investigation to be extended and on the period before 2007, especially for those offences which are already threatened by the statute of limitations. In this sense, we believe that the arrests in Bar must continue, because Pavicevic certainly was not alone in carrying out criminal acts for which he is accused.
MANS filed in 2011 a criminal complaint against Pavicevic, and handed it personally to the Special Prosecutor of that time Djurdjina Ivanovic, together with extensive documentation. Since then MANS has repeatedly pointed that it is needed that this case is urgently prosecuted, and that Pavicevic and the team that surrounds him must be arrested in order to be prevented to influence witnesses and documentation from their positions, as well as to repeat offenses.
However, from the indictment prior to the arrest of Pavicevic we learned that he is suspected of the crimes which he exercised until 2014, three years after the prosecution had indications that this is a person for whom there was reasonable suspicion that he committed a serious crimes against property of the municipality.
Other crimes for which there is documentation in the Prosecutor’s Office were also made at the expense of the budget of the Municipality of Bar, and the state budget as well, and include persons such as the current Minister of Sustainable Development, Branimir Gvozednovic, brother of Prime Minister, Aleksandar Djukanovic, and then the godfather of Prime Minister’s advisor Milan Rocen, Ratko Vujacic.
By changing the planning documentation on construction sites owned by Aleksander Djukanovic, which significantly capacity for construction are increased, Zarko Pavicevic for several times increased the value of parcels that Djukanovic previously purchased from the Municipality of Bar. The difference in that price is a direct harm to budget of Bar, which is measured by millions of euros. In addition to Bar, this system has been repeatedly applied in the Municipality of Budva.
In addition, thanks to the Minister Gvozdenovic, Pavicevic has enabled ICB, and as well the companies of his business partners, that without sanctions legalize additionally built storeys, again at the expense of the municipal budget. One of the partner companies was the company “Longrun-invest” owned by Ratko Vujacic, against whom MANS has already filed separate criminal charge for evasion of more than half a million euros in taxes during apartment sale apartments to Russian citizens in Bar.
The loan for which the company ICB introduced in bankruptcy has been taken in a manner in which Pavicevic mortgaged quarry land that was illegally acquired during the privatization of ICB, and additionally burdened by the weight of restitution. Also, the company ICB, at the expense of never completed works on the sports hall in Bar, received from the municipality two valuable building lots in the city center. Although, the job on the hall is not completed the ICB kept lots, and Pavicevic, as President of the Municipality made a new agreement with another company for the completion of works. Thus, the municipality actually paid twice for the sports hall.
For some of these cases there is a real danger of the statute of limitations, so it is necessary that the Special Prosecutor’s Office urgently opens an investigation and in other cases for which there are evidence that Pavicevic committed criminal offenses.
MANS hopes that arrests in Bar will not stop at Pavicevic’s and his only one case, but that a complete network of individuals and companies associated with him will also be covered by the investigation.
Dejan Milovac
Director of the Research Center of MANS
