Yesterday, MANS filed a criminal complaint against the President of the Parliament and former Minister of Transport, Ivan Brajović, as well as NN persons who participated in the preparation and contracting of the construction of a section of the highway from Podgorica to Mateševo because of a suspicion of abuse of office, which resulted in damage to the state budget of around €134 million, which is around 2.5% of Montenegro’s GDP.
The criminal complaint is filed with the Special Prosecutor on the basis of suspicion that Brajović and other Government officials, by abusing the office and the non-performing of their official duties, did not envisage a number of additional works.
That is why 42.5 kilometre-long highway section will cost a total of around €1.3 billion, i.e. 300 million more than it was announced five years ago. It is the amount that represents the calculation of the basic price of works, additional and “forgotten works”, interest and exchange rate differences.
They contracted the construction of the Podgorica-Mateševo highway based on the preliminary design, with poor geodetic substrates, while in the construction contract not all works are listed, such as Smokovac loop, electrical and water supply networks and all access roads on other loops.
Also, the reported persons contracted the loan for construction in dollars, without protection from exchange rate differences, which caused additional costs. The government’s loan for the highway in October 2014, amounting to $ 944 million, was then worth € 743 million (Euro was $ 1.27), and now when Euro is worth $ 1.12, it is worth €842 million.
The “forgotten” first phase of the Smokovac loop will cost additional €85 million, along with a tolling ramp and reconstruction of several streets on Zlatica, construction of a water supply network along the entire route of the section of the highway and several access roads for other loops, as well as several other minor works.
Because of all this, the Government will sign an annex to the contract on conclusion of those works with the main contractor, Chinese company CRBC, as agreed during the visit of their delegation, and the price is already agreed. The construction of substations and electricity network for the highway section will cost previously unplanned €31 million.
The Government had to divide and allocate the total cost of around €116 million for “forgotten works” to the electric network, because under the basic contract, additional works can amount to a maximum of 10% of the first contracted amount.
Also, additional 18 million in damages refer to the lost profit from the toll payment, because the completion of the section will be delayed for 15 or 16 months.
Brajović publicly claimed that the loop was not supposed to be in the contract because it was part of the second route Farmaci – Smokovac, and that only its design was envisaged.
However, his statement is denied by the documents from his cabinet where the construction of the loop is stated in the informant forms and plans on the priority section.
At a public debate on the section of the highway, organized by MANS in October last year, engineer Jovan Ivanović from the Italian-French consortium Ingerop Geodata, which the government hired as a project supervisor, said that according to the rules of the profession it would be normal for the works on the electricity and water supply network to be a part of the contract.
MANS
