The procedure implies for the Chinese company to determine a subcontractor, then request the approval of the Ministry of Transport and when it receives it, the subcontracting contract is concluded.
Three and a half years since the official start of the construction of the Smokovac-Mateševo highway section, the value of subcontracting contracts has reached €404 million, which is half of the contracted price of works.
Montenegrin company Bemax received the largest piece of the pie, according to information by “Monteput”, which is in charge of the implementation of the highway project.
According to these data from the abstract of the contract, submitted to the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS), “Bemax” received works worth €234 million or almost 30% of the total contract price of the section!
Other well-known Montenegrin companies also did well.
According to the agreement on the construction of the Smokovac-Mateševo highway section, it is stipulated that the Chinese company “CRBC” will hire domestic companies as subcontractors, at least 30% of the agreed price, which amounts to €242 million.
The procedure implies for the Chinese company to determine a subcontractor, then request the approval of the Ministry of Transport and when it receives it, the subcontracting contract is concluded.
Based on the Law on Free Access to Information, MANS received 73 so-called abstract contracts from Monteput, which the Chinese company concluded with subcontractors as stand-alone companies or as consortia.
The analysis of the submitted documentation shows that in mid-2018, the value of the subcontracted works reached €404 million, i.e. half of the value of the Contracts for the entire section.
90% of this amount, i.e. €367 million, was agreed with six subcontractors.
The largest part of the pie received company Bemax from Podgorica, more than €234 million worth of works, which is 29% compared to the total price of the Smokovac-Mateševo section contract, i.e. 58% of the value of all subcontracting contracts.
In second place is the company “Skladgradnja” from Split, whose subcontracting contracts are worth €42 million.
The next is “Cijevna Komerc” from Podgorica with €36 million and 600 thousand, and “Ramel” company from Nikšić with €24 million.
“Montenegro Petrol” from Podgorica negotiated deals worth €21 million.
In the last place is “Putevi” from Užice, with eight million and 700 thousand Euros of contracted works.
MANS believes it is clear from these data that the controversial “business of the century” is mainly job for the “Bemax” from Podgorica where, thanks to this, enormous profit is made at the expense of Montenegrin citizens, who at the same time pay the most expensive kilometre per highway in Europe.
“Bemax is a company that emerged from nowhere couple of years ago, which immediately, without any experience, started getting the most valuable state jobs, and now we see that they are building a third of the section of the Smokovac-Mateševo highway. It turns out that funds from the state cash register are poured into the registers of private companies, having in mind that, on the other hand, the state has renounced a series of revenues that it could have earned, should it be mentioned that they are exempted from paying VAT and customs duties, that they are exempted from payment for the use of construction stone,” said Ines Mrdović (MANS).
The agreement on the construction of the Smokovac-Mateševo section stipulated that the contractor, i.e. the Chinese company “CRBC”, was responsible for payments to subcontractors, but no documentation was submitted to the MANS to show how much it is paid to subcontractors engaged in the Smokovac-Mateševo so far.
Matija Otašević
