Construction of the first section of Bar-Boljare highway is the largest and most expensive infrastructure project in Montenegro. The project was agreed for €809 million i.e. 19.7 million per kilometre, but the final price depends on additional works and changes in the currency exchange rate of the Euro and the US dollar, as the loan for financing was contracted in dollars.
Costs of construction of the first section will be 20-35% higher than agreed, provided that there are no additional works besides Smokovac interchange. This means that the price of this section can be over € 1 billion, i.e. 25 million per kilometre of the highway.
Costs of managing the construction of this section amount to at least €15 million, and it is not known how much it will grow due to delay of works.
The first section of the highway is being built by the Chinese company China Road and Bridge Corporation, and by mid-2018 it entrusted subcontractors with works worth around €400 million, which is half of agreed price of works. This amount was divided by six subcontractors, while by far the largest part got the local company “Bemax”, which agreed works worth as much as one-third of the total price of this section of the highway.
The contractors of works on the highway have received numerous subsidies, and since the start of the construction, the Chinese company has been exempted from payment of a fee of at least €112 million.
The project for the construction of the first section is being carried out under the veil of secret, because the Government has previously designated key documents as secret. State secrets include the most important data on finances, all control reports and deadlines for implementation of works, as well as criteria according to which subsequent and unforeseen works are estimated. Only a small part of information on subsidies is available to the public, and some institutions published information at the beginning of the construction of the highway, but later they declared it secret.
Despite court verdicts, institutions are persisting in hiding data, so public control is virtually impossible, which creates space for spreading of corruption.
Complete report download HERE (PDF)
Complete report download HERE (PDF)
