In the past two years, the Ministry of Agriculture has paid nearly € 100.000 to Carinvest, owned by the President of the Municipality of Budva, for subsidies for agricultural production and procurement of equipment, even though it is a farm built entirely on occupied state land and without a building permit. This is shown by the data obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre.
Marko Carević’s farm complex consists of 12 facilities of over 6000m2, and the entire occupied property is spread over an area of around half a million square meters. As MANS’ investigation showed, Carinvest built the entire agricultural complex in just a few years, completely undisturbed by the inspection and the competent authorities for management of state property.
Marko Carević
New information obtained by MANS shows that Carević has used enormous state land not only without compensation, but the Government of Montenegro has also provided financial assistance to Carević in building his agricultural empire in Krimovica.
Money for illegal facilities in Krimovica
In mid-2017, through its programme of support to agricultural holdings, IPARD Like 2.2, the Ministry of Agriculture accepted to participate with 50 % of the funds in one of Carević’s investments in the farm complex in Krimovica. At that time, Carević was promised around €52.000 as state participation for the construction of a mini-slaughterhouse and the purchase of equipment. According to the orders of the Paying Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre, Carinvest sent a request for payment of € 51.062,04 in early February, which was signed by the executive director of the company and the son of Budva Mayor, Milan Carević. Finally, a payment was made to Carinvest’s account from the Paying Agency’s account in mid-June last year.
In addition to this direct assistance for the construction of facilities in Krimovica, the Ministry of Agriculture continuously assisted the illegal agricultural holding of Carević from 2017 to 2019. This is confirmed by the analytical cards of the Ministry of Agriculture for the aforementioned period, where apart from the money for the mini-slaughterhouse, it can be seen that Carević was assisted with another €50 thousand in direct subsidies for production.
MANS previously stated that Carević had registered his holding back in 2016 by reporting to the Ministry of Agriculture his own plots where no production is taking place today, while the entire farm complex was built on occupied state land.
Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture rejected Carević’s request to lease the land on which he built the farms, thus further confirming that the entire business in Krimovica was illegal. However, this was not an obstacle for this state body to support the Budva Mayor financially throughout the occupation.
IDF loans
It is not just the Ministry of Agriculture that has assisted Carević’s businesses, despite the fact that it has occupied the state property. While building the illegal agricultural complex in Krimovica on the state land, Marko Carević provided more loans from the Investment Development Fund (IDF) in support of his company Carinvest. First, in 2015, IDF approved € 1.2 million in support for refinancing loans, then received additional € 500.000 of direct loan the following year. IDF’s support to Carević continued in 2018 when he was granted a loan of an additional € 500,000 for the acquisition of concrete pumps and asphalt machines.
The Ministry of Finance and the cadastre knew about the occupation and remained silent.
Data obtained by MANS show that for more than a year before MANS published the story, the state authorities in charge of managing and recording state property knew that Carević occupied half a million square meters in Krimovica and built over 6000m2 of facilities without a building permit.
At the end of November 2018, Carević addressed the Kotor cadastre with a request to register 11 illegally constructed facilities on the state land, with a total area of over 6000 m2. The Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro appealed against the decision of the cadastre, but the Ministry of Finance rejected the appeal and registered Carević’s illegal facilities on the state land.
At the end of September 2019, Carević again addressed the Kotor cadastre, requesting that two smaller facilities, which he had built in the meantime, be registered on the state land – auxiliary facility and a power substation. The Protector appealed against this decision as well, but the Ministry of Finance also rejected that appeal and allowed Carević to register on state land.
At the end of 2019, Carević addressed the Property Administration with a request to buy close to 300.000 m2 of the state land in Krimovica, which was only part of what he had previously occupied. In early December 2019, the Property Administration addressed the Real Estate Administration with a request for estimation of the land value, but it is not known whether the Real Estate Administration has ever made that estimation.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Agriculture answered and confirmed that the land lease would not happen, and that it was giving up its plan to announce a call for a lease of the Krimovica site.
It is interesting that back in mid-2018, when he submitted an official request for legalization to the Kotor Secretariat for Urban Planning, Carević stated that he had a contract with the state to lease land on which illegal facilities are located.
From all of the above it can be concluded that the Ministries of Agriculture and Finance, the Property Administration, the Real Estate Directorate and the Protector of Property and Legal Interests had full information on what was happening in Krimovica, while none of them notified the police or the State Prosecutor’s Office.
Dejan Milovac
Investigative Centre
MANS
