The Ministry of Capital Investments (MCI), headed by the Minister Mladen Bojanić, did not deny any of the facts announced by MANS yesterday, which indicate the suspicion that the proposed concession act for the quarry “Platac” openly favours the company “Carinvest” and Marko Carević, the Mayor of Budva.
Thus, the draft concession act omits key information that is important for the transparency and legality of the entire procedure, to which the MCI, unfortunately, only declaratively refers.
Mladen Bojanić
MCI does not state the fact that there is already an active concession agreement for “Platac” with the company “Carinvest”, which lasts until the end of this year with clearly defined obligations that Carević must fulfil after the expiration of the contract, which relate to recultivation of the site. All this information is in the Ministry itself and it is easily accessible to them.
According to the Law on Concessions, the Government of Montenegro has the authority to award concessions for a period of up to a maximum of 30 years, so it is clear why the MCI is trying to treat the quarry that Carević family has been using for 15 years as a completely new stone deposit. As the company “Carinvest” no longer has the possibility of extending the existing contract, Minister Bojanić and MCI came up with the idea to deny the situation on the ground with a draft concession act, and enable Carević family to get additional 30 years after the expiration of 15.
The fact that in addition to the state plots, MCI plans to offer private plots owned by Marko Carević to the tender for concessions, also shows that this draft concession act puts family Carević in a privileged position. The Law on Concessions defines natural resources in state ownership as the subject of the concession, so the question arises in which procedure the MCI agreed with Marko Carević that his private plots be included in the draft concession act.
Marko Carević
Did the MCI initiate the expropriation procedure for Carević’s plots that will be offered at a “non-discriminatory and transparent public tender”, or will the mayor of Budva be compensated in some other way? Did the MCI check the previous implementation of the contract at the “Pratac” site in terms of the amount of excavated materials and the impact on the environment? Is the MCI aware of the fact that the quarry has been operating for almost a decade without the necessary permits and consents?
The answers to each of these questions must be the starting point for drafting a concession act for the mentioned site, because it is not clear how the MCI without them tries to ensure that anyone other than Carević, of course, applies for this job.
We believe that it is unacceptable for MCI to continue to insist on a show called “public debate” in which elementary facts are hidden from the public and, contrary to the law, to rig a job for the previous user of the quarry, the company “Carinvest”.
Everything that MCI is doing in this case is too similar to the practice established by the previous government, thanks to which this country received a label of the state captured by the interests of the so-called ruling elite and related tycoons. We wish to believe that MCI and Minister Bojanić do not want to be recognized in public as successors of Branko Vujović, Branimir Gvozdenović or Dragica Sekulić, and that they will still try to show by this specific example that “no one is stronger than the state” as it has been lately often announced to the citizens.
However, if the MCI does not ensure equality of all participants in this public tender and does not explain in detail to the public why it persists in favouring one company, MANS will ask the Government of Montenegro to reject the proposal for a concession act and a possible contract with Carinvest until all relevant facts are established.
Dejan Milovac
Investigative Centre
MANS
