Management of the company “Skladgradnja” from Split, which carries out works on the highway, left Montenegro owing its workers several wages. Data of the MANS Investigative Centre show that this Croatian company received from the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs the permission to participate in the “business of the century” despite the fact that its owner, Slaven Žužul, has been repeatedly accused by the Croatian investigating authorities for fraudulent activities regarding the construction of the highway and non-paying of workers’ wages.
The fact that “Skladgradnja” left Montenegro is confirmed by the findings of the labour inspection, which according to the initiative of MANS controlled the payment of wages in that company.
“After calling the administrative worker Zorica Milašinović, I received the information that employers are in Croatia because they are not performing any works on the highway route. I made a telephone call to Slaven Žužul, the director of the company in Croatia, who promised to pay off all outstanding wages by the end of the month, and I will make a record of this upon his arrival in Montenegro”, said labour inspector Sonja Rakonjac in response to MANS.
Slaven Žužul
This way of business of Slaven Žužul is already known to the Croatia’s Prosecutor’s Office, which in June this year filed an indictment against him because for more than a year he has not paid wages to employees of Skladgradnja from Split and the Split football club. In addition, Slaven Žužul’s name in Croatia is linked to tax evasion, subsidies fraud, and the involvement in affairs related to the construction of Croatian highways. Since 2003, during the Government of Ivo Sanader, Skladgradnja has started to get jobs on the construction of the Croatian highway as a subcontractor, and previously it worked as a cooperated with shipyards, Brodosplit and Brodotrogir. The revenues of Skladgradnja grew from 2003 to 2008, and Žužul was detained three times because of suspicion of extracting money from Croatian Motorways (HAC), motorways Rijeka – Zagreb and Brodosplit. According to the Croatian media, Slaven Žužul was linked to Sanader by his cousin Miomir, the former foreign minister, after which their business boomed.
The most famous affair related to the works of this Split-based company is its participation in the construction of the tunnels Sveti Rok and Mala Kapela on the new Croatian A1 motorway. In mid-2016, an indictment was issued against HAC leaders that the works of painting tunnels were set up on the tender precisely for Slaven Žužul and his company “Skladgradnja”, which he charged €2.3 million more than the real price for the job.
In spite all of this, the Chinese company CRBC proposed this company, and the Ministry of Transport accepted it as a subcontractor for the construction of the priority section Smokovac-Mateševo.
The first consent to hire “Skladgradnja” was issued by the then Minister of Transport, Ivan Brajović, at the end of 2015. It was then planned for that company to build the tunnel “Mateševo” and the bridges “Tara 1” and “Tara 2”, as well as “Mateševo” loop at the very end of this section of the highway.
The next consent was signed also by Brajović, only a few days after the Croatian state authorities filed an indictment against Žužul and “Skladgradnja”. Two other consents issued to this company were issued by the new minister, Osman Nurković.
Interestingly, “Skladgradnja” has been entrusted with the subcontractor’s work on the most sensitive part of the highway section along the Tara River, while no one in the Ministry of Transport felt any need to check this company, let alone establish that numerous procedures are being conducted in Croatia precisely because of their participation in jobs on the construction of the highway.
Up to now, Skladgradnja has signed subcontracting contracts worth €42 for the highway works, but it is unknown how much they were paid, because all the documentation about these payments was declared secret.
Dejan Milovac
Biljana Matijašević
Creditors are preparing criminal charges
Lawyer Savo Jasnić, who represents part of the creditors of the Skladgradnja in Montenegro, has prepared lawsuits and criminal charges.
“It is becoming obvious that in addition to my clients, there is a large number of partners and employees of Skladgradnja that have been played by their management. Due to these actions, we have prepared criminal charges against founders and authorized persons in related companies of Skladgradnja. In addition, we have prepared a lawsuit to disregard the legal entity against all the entities of the Skladgradnja and their beneficial owner” Jasnić said. He invited all creditors, and especially workers, to join them.
Žužul’s company in Montenegro, Skladgradnja a part of a foreign company, has already lost one dispute before the Basic Court in Nikšić, according to the claim of the creditor Miodrag Mušurović. The court partially accepted the claim, so it obliged Skladgradnja to pay the plaintiff for compensation of pecuniary damage due to unpaid rent and unlawful use of the real estate-family apartment building in Podgorica, in the amount of €12,140, with a legal interest, and to compensate him for the costs of the €1,000 euro procedure within 15 days from the validity of the verdict, under threat of compulsory execution.
Montenegrin companies blocked
Žužul founded two companies in Montenegro – Skladgradnja Montenegro LLC and Skladgradnja part of a foreign company. Skladgradnja Montenegro was established in September 2015 and Skladgradnja part of a foreign company in October 2015, i.e., a few months before obtaining the approval for the subcontractor on the Bar-Boljare highway.
According to the data of the Central Bank of Montenegro, since October 31, both Žužul’s companies have been blocked. Account of Skladgradnja Montenegro has been blocked since October 23 on the amount of €38,370, while Skladgradnja part of a foreign company has been blocked for 210 days on the amount of €237,646.
According to official data, Skladgradnja part of a foreign company has only one employee, and it ended last year with a loss of nearly half a million Euros, which was four times higher than at the end of 2016.
Skladgradnja Montenegro LLC had at the end of last year 30 employees, while at the end of 2016 only one. At the end of the year, the recorded loss was €118,683, while there were no recorded revenues.
