Blocking competition, false competitions and unfounded “inflating” of the sums in the offers are the main features of this year’s tenders for the lease of the Montenegrin beaches and bathing areas, in which tender commissions of the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management (JPMD) have an active role, according to the analysis of the MANS Investigation Center.
MANS has researched tenders for the lease of beaches and bathing areas for 2016, based on the documentation provided by the JPMD. Comparing the data and offers for this year’s tenders, the MANS Investigation Center has found that a valid system is the one established on JPMD’s decisions that facilitates total manipulation of the tendering procedure.
JPMD created a tender evaluation system that enabled even the lowest tenderers to win the tender, resulting in the loss tens of thousands of euros from the budget of the public company. Namely, the system implied that the highest bid receives the highest score, then offers submitted by former lessees of beaches based on “experience and references in the management of beaches,” while other offers received lower score regardless of the offer.
The evaluation system was based on the principle that the highest offer won the tender, usually with completely unrealistic sum, while the second-ranking tenderer would be the one with the “greatest experience in the management of the beaches”, regardless of the prices offered. After the tender procedure was completed, the winner of the tender would give up signing of the contract and the tender commission instead of inviting a new tender, would automatically award contract to the second ranking tenderer, although it did not offer higher price for the particular beach. Thus, all other interested bidders that were willing to pay much higher sums had no chance to lease bathing areas. All of this was made possible on the basis of decisions made by JPMD, which subsequently in the tender invitation, would cancel the obligation of a tender commission to make a list of bidders and decide on the best offer anew. This kind of manipulation of the tendering procedure has been most visible in the municipalities of Budva and Ulcinj.
Public Invitation for leasing bathing areas in the municipality of Budva envisaged the lease of Kamenovo beach, which is divided into two parts, according to the plan. The minimum price for the lease of the western part of the beach was €26,742.00, while the price for eastern part was €12,944.00. Besides the offers, all bidders had to submit bank guarantees in the amount of €10,000 for the western and €5,000 for the eastern part of Kamenovo.
Bid opening minutes in which the MANS Investigation Center has had access shows that certain Vaso Dedivanovic submitted offers for both beaches, offering an unbelievable sum of €500,000 for the western part and €600, 000 for the eastern part of the beach. In total, the bid was worth €1.1 million. On the other hand, the former tenants submitted offers for both parts of the beach, Podgorica-based “Kamenovo beach” and Budva-based company “La Suerte”, along with several other interested bidders with offers significantly higher than the minimum price.
Having won the public tender for both parts of the beach, Dedivanovic informed the Tender Commission that he gave up the lease, and the Commission invited the second-ranking company to conclude the agreement. Although there were more valuable offers in comparison to the offers of the former lessees they were second-ranking bidders due to scores received on the basis of the experience in the management of bathing areas.
Thus, Podgorica-based “Kamenovo beach” and Budva’s “La Suerte”, the offers of which were only 3€ higher than the minimum prices, become lessees of the exclusive part of the Montenegrin coast. Dejan Pejovic is the owner of “Kamenovo Beach”, Igor Pejovic is CEO, whereas Nikola Pejovic is the owner and CEO of “La Suerte”. It is interesting that there is one more person with the surname Pejovic in the tender- Suzana Pejovic, the owner and founder of “BIP Hotels”.
According to data obtained by MANS, Vaso Dedivanovic who offered an annual rent of €1.1 million for beach Kamenovo is a manager in the company “BIP Hotels”, which also participated in the tender. The data from the business entities and real estate registry show that Dedivanovic does not own any companies, nor any kind of property, which further confirms the suspicion that the abovementioned million-worth offer for the beach in Kamenovo was only a part of a scheme prepared in advance so as to outsmart the tender procedure.
One of the beaches in Becici was leased in a similar fashion – after the bidder Savo Burzan as a first-ranking with an offer of €130,000, withdrew from the tender process, the beach was leased to the Podgorica-based company “Arcadia” and an individual named Dejan Ivanovic as the second-ranking bidder for the sum of €16,000. Concerning the beach at issue, minimum lease price was €15,967. As in the previous case, JPMD did not invite the tender again and establish a new ranking of bidders, but the beach was assigned to the second-ranking bidder.
A tender for leasing beaches in the municipality of Ulcinj, where 37 beaches were offered, shows that manipulations were present elsewhere, not only on the Budva coast. One of these beaches was in the cove Valdanos, which was offered at a minimum price of €4,853. The public bid opening minutes show that the offers for the aforementioned beach were as follows:
Ljuljzim Nimanbegovic with his colossal offer won the tender receiving the score of 50, while Arben Nimanbegovic was the second-ranking based on recommendations and experience, which generated him the score of 21, with 1.68 points for the offered price that was for only €47 higher than the minimum price. As in the case of Budva, Ljuljzim Nimanbegovic informed JPMD that he withdrew from the tender process, which then concluded the agreement on the use of marine resources with Arben Nimanbegovic. It is indicative that JPMD, which is responsible for the management of bathing areas, did not even try to react and avoid obvious abuse of the tender procedure and blocking competition which slashed the budget. Arben Nimanbegovic’s offer was the lowest, and the fact that the bidder with the second higher offer filed a complaint did not change anything.
Similarly, Mala plaza/City beach in Ulcinj was leased for as low as €1,560. After the tender was invited, five bids were submitted, in the amounts ranging from € 1,560.65 up to a staggering sum of €351,837.
Expectedly, Skrelja’s offer won the public tender, with the maximum score of 50. On the other hand, a bidder Ana Fabris, based on references from the lease of beach in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and the offered price achieved the score of 21.22 and thus positioning herself as the second-ranking tenderer. After Skrelja withdrew from the tender process, Fabris was awarded the contract, although other bidders had offers twenty times higher than hers. In this way, the part of Ulcinj’s Mala plaza was leased €0.65 higher than the price at which it was offered for tender.
Barovic pleaded guilty by signin an agreement
The Montenegrin Prosecution has not seriously dealt with lessees of the beach yet nor check the origin of the astronomical sums offered for specific locations. On the other hand, the Prosecution has checked the work of JPMD but precise information about it are still not available to the public, except for the information that the former director of the said public company was removed from office after concluding a deferred prosecution agreement with the Special State Prosecutor’s Office. The media reported that the illegal leasing of the beaches and swimming areas were grounds for prosecution of Barovic. Despite the fact that by signing of such an agreement Barovic actually pleaded guilty, he is still employed in JPMD as an advisor to the new director, Predrag Jelusic.
Members of tender commissions
The members of the tender commission that conducted the procedure for leasing the beautiful beach Kamenovo and the beach in Becici were Dragoljub Markovic, Sabrina Cuturic and Jelena Pavicevic, while deputy member / assistant was Darko Kuljaca. The members of the tender commission, which granted Ulcinj’s beaches in question on lease in a debatable manner were Claudia Pejovic, Milica Vujanovic and Andrej Puric.
Lazar Grdinic (MANS)
Biljanja Matijasevic
This text is created with the support of the European Union within the project “Zero Tolerance to Corruption”. Network for Affirmation of Non-Governmental Sector – MANS is solely responsible for the contents of this article, and the views taken herein shall not in any case be considered as those of the European Union.
