The Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Kotor initiated preliminary proceedings in the case of the illegal construction of the Minister of Urbanism and Spatial Planning, Ratko Mitrović, according to the report MANS filed at the end of May.
New data published by MANS show that the illegal building of Minister Mitrović’s family cannot be legalized without amendments to the planning documentation for which Mitrović himself is in charge.
Komoševina settlement is located on a hill above the popular beach Mogren and offers a direct view of the St. Marko island, Budva’s old town and Zavala peninsula.
The current Minister of Urbanism and Spatial Planning, Ratko Mitrović, has long joined the race for the most prestigious location on the Budva Riviera, and he decided to build a residential building in that very Budva settlement without a building permit and contrary to planning documentation.
When Komoševina was urbanized, at the end of 2015, Minister Mitrović received conditions from the Municipality of Budva for the construction of a residential building, with a maximum area of around 322 m2.
Urban development and technical requirements
However, the data from the field and the official documentation of the Budva Secretariat for Urbanism show that the appetites of Minister Mitrović and his family were much bigger than what the official planning documentation allowed.
In new documentation for legalization submitted to the Municipality of Budva by Matija Mitrović, the Minister’s son, the auditor of the project states that the facility was not built in accordance with the conditions from the spatial plan for that part of Budva.
Auditor’s statement
It is interesting that the field report was made only two weeks after the appearance of Minister Mitrović in the show “Načisto”, where he assured the public that it was a building of around 300 m2.
Mitrović’s building has three floors above ground and consists of nine apartments, the largest of which has about 200 m2.
In response to a question from the MANS Investigative Centre, the Budva Secretariat for Urbanism confirmed that Mitrović family had exceeded the conditions from the plan to which their facility should fit.
Response of the Budva Secretariat for Urbanism
The Secretariat also states that, if the conditions are met, in the concrete case, it would make a decision on the termination of the legalization procedure until the entry into force of the General Regulation Plan of Montenegro.
There is a danger that this will bring Minister Mitrović into a position of conflict of interest, as the one we saw when urbanism was managed by the staff of the Democratic Party of Socialists, and the public interest was often subordinated to the private one. Minister Mitrović’s facility is not the only or the largest illegal building in Budva, but we believe that it would be a great opportunity for the new government to show on a concrete example that the law is now the same for everyone and that there are no untouchables in the sector of urbanism.
When it comes to the legalization of that facility, the minister is in an obvious conflict of interest because it is his ministry that is in charge of adopting the plan for legalization. Bearing in mind Minister Mitrović’s continued efforts to withhold the facts from the public, we are not encouraged that his capacity to enforce the law will exceed that of his predecessor, Branimir Gvozdenović.
In the meantime, the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Kotor has opened a case and initiated preliminary proceedings following MANS’ report against Mitrović. The public expects an answer to the question: will Ratko Mitrović be yet another Montenegro’s minister who is above the law, or will the law and justice finally be satisfied, regardless of the fact that he is a minister.
Response of the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office
Dejan Milovac
MANS Investigative Centre
