Today, NGO MANS presented to the public a database on the construction of the Bar – Boljare highway, the priority section Smokovac – Mateševo, which is one of the activities supported by the European Commission, all within the project “Active citizens for better Montenegro – Towards sustainable development and the rule of law.” The database can be found on the following link: http://www.mans.co.me/autoput-bar-boljare-baza-podataka/.
When presenting the database that compiles all information related to the highway that could have been collected, Dejan Milovac, director of the Investigative Centre, said that the database is the result of a six-month work, by which MANS is trying to make up for what the Government of Montenegro, the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs and the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism have not presented to the public, mostly in the part of spending money in the most expensive investment in Montenegro so far, but also in the part of the impact of construction on the environment.
“This database will certainly be a very good tool for all journalists who, in addition to reporting on the highway, want to further explore what is behind the entire job, and will provide them with information on how the project is financed, the dynamics of construction, and how all this affects the environment, “Milovac said.
The map-shaped database displays the complete highway route with marked objects, open route, tunnels and bridges. In addition to photos from the field, the map also shows the accompanying documentation for each facility individually, including construction permits and other approvals. Additionally, it contains information on MANS cooperation with other environmental organizations, including inspection reports, their responses and footages. In addition, the database contains all legal regulations and by-laws that deal with the construction of the highway, but also agreements with the People’s Republic of China and international conventions.
As for financial data, Ines Mrdović, the Coordinator of the Public Finance Programme, reminded that the price of the construction of the highway would undoubtedly exceed 1 billion Euros.
“Part of the database regarding funds has four categories: payments, subsidies, subcontractors and employees, i.e. the number of employees,” Mrdović said. Among other things, financial information also contains information about the Chinese loan, by years, including interest, commission, fees, i.e. all that has been paid in the last five years on the basis of the loan taken for the construction of the highway. Mrdović pointed out that data on CRBC’s payments to domestic subcontractors would have also been in the database had they not been declared secret, although the value of subcontracts is as much as 400 million euros.
The database also contains data on subsidies – fuel excise taxes, unpaid taxes and contributions for employees and unpaid VAT. “Part of the amount of unpaid taxes and contributions for employees is something we first report, and this is the information we recently managed to get from the Tax Administration, and this amount is for the period from 2015 to 2018 at the level of around 11 million Euros” Mrdović said. In addition, she said that the actual number of engaged workers on the highway construction must be significantly higher, because the fact is that the CRBC only submits a part of the data to the Tax Administration.
A special category within the base are subcontractors, where individual companies such as “Bemax”, “Cijevna Komerc”, “Montenegro Petrol” or “Ramel” can see what the subcontractor agreed with CRBC through specific documents. “This is still a project that is under a veil of secrecy and the data that are in the base are partial, that is, those that we managed to get from institutions,” Mrdović concluded.
While demonstrating how the database is used in practice, he reminded that the latest footage showed that devastation of the Tara River continues, that CRBC has been dumping waste on its banks uncontrollably and that the European Parliament’s recommendations regarding this issue have not respected. He announced that MANS, in cooperation with ecological organizations, will submit new initiatives to competent inspections, as well as criminal charges against the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, the Administration for Inspection Affairs and CRBC.
It is announced that the database will be regularly updated at least once a month, depending on the dynamics of data collection, and sometimes while publishing investigative stories, which will be accompanied by press conferences.
MANS
