The adoption of the concession act for Krimovica by the Government of Montenegro meant realization of the plan of the Ministry of Capital Investments (MCI) and the Minister Mladen Bojanić to award a 30-year concession for stone exploitation to the company of Marko Carević, the Mayor of Budva, contrary to laws and regulations.
After the public debate, MCI now claims that Carević is not the initiator of the concession act drafting, and that this part of the document will “be harmonized with facts”, i.e. that the act is passed on the basis of the Concession Plan.
However, Minister Bojanić and MCI are refuted by the document they put up for public discussion a month ago, which shows that Carević’s company “Carinvest” was the initiator of the concession act, as well as that amendment to the Concession Plan for detailed geological research and exploitation of mineral resources for 2021 was done precisely at the initiative of Marko Carević.
Carević’s initiative was also considered by a special commission, on the basis of whose consent the quarry on Krimovica was included in the amended Concession Plan for this year.
In addition, for the drafting of the concession act, MCI used the documentation of the company “Carinvest”, which disqualifies this company from participating in the public tender for this concession.
Namely, in the MCI’s document, in the part related to stone reserves, it is stated that the calculation of reserves at that location was done on the basis of the Study that was made in 2018 for the needs of the company “Carinvest”. Article 18 of the Law on Concessions states that legal or natural persons who provided assistance in drafting a concession act may not participate as bidders in the procedure of granting that concession.
A month ago, MANS warned the Government of Montenegro, MCI and Minister Bojanić himself that the manner in which this work is planned is not in accordance with the law, or the generally adopted principle of transparency of state bodies and zero tolerance for corruption.
Unfortunately, the continuation of this procedure shows that Minister Bojanić and MCI put Marko Carević’s profit interest above the public interest, while the continuity in this procedure opens space for suspicion that it is not about ignorance of laws and regulations.
The way in which MCI acts in this business, ignoring the warnings of the civil sector and the Protector of Property and Legal Interests, and the obvious violation of the Law on Concessions, have all the characteristics of the deals made by the previous government that devastated the country’s resources.
That is why MANS called on Minister Bojanić today to publicly announce why MCI continues to work contrary to the law, and what motivates them to complete this procedure at any cost, even with the foreknown winner of the public tender.
We call on the Government of Montenegro to repeal the decision on the concession act without delay, until all the facts related to this deal are defined.
Dejan Milovac
Investigative Centre
