ASPHALT WITH THE ODOR OF CORRUPTION – How the Mayor of Budva made money from local tenders

The President of the Municipality of Budva, Marko Carević, has been using the company “Asfalt-beton gradnja” from Podgorica for a long time in order to participate as a covert subcontractor in the tenders announced by the Municipality of Budva. In that way, Carević has concluded as many as 11 contracts with this company since the beginning of his term of office, worth 1,900,000 euros, according to the recordings and documentation obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre.

For performing of the contracted works, “Asfalt-beton gradnja”, backed by Vladimir Mirković who was arrested in the KLAP operation, used the mechanization of Carević’s company “Carinvest”, which brought the first man of Budva into an obvious conflict of interest.

The company “Asfalt-beton gradnja” is currently repairing a rural road in the Budva settlement of Pobori, for which it received around 420 thousand euros from the Municipality of Budva, through a contract for the purchase of works signed by the Mayor Marko Carević. Although “Asfalt-beton” is formally the contractor, photos and recordings of Budva Television show that the machinery of the company “Carinvest”, owned by the Carević family, is on the field.

The same situation was with other works for which “Asfalt-beton gradnja” received money from the Municipality of Budva. Thus, the machines of Carević’s company were also hired on construction sites in the centre of Budva, in Bečići, Petrovac, Reževići, Jaz, and in settlements Podkošljun, Čelobrdo, Lapčići, Stanišići, Lazi and Rozino.

In order to meet the conditions of the tender, in the official bid, the company “Asfalt-beton gradnja” guaranteed the technical equipment needed to perform construction works. This was also the case with the most valuable tender, in which it received a job of 800 thousand euros from the Municipality of Budva.

As part of the official offer obtained by MANS, “Asfalt-beton gradnja” pointed out the technical specification of the machinery, which includes as many as 40 different machines and trucks owned by this company.

However, in the company’s latest annual report for 2019, total value of the equipment it owns is estimated at only 74 thousand euros. There is also no data on loans from which the equipment listed in the technical specification for the tender could be financed.

In the offer of the Municipality of Budva, “Asfalt-beton gradnja” did not list the company Carinvest as an official contractor or subcontractor, which was required by the Law on Public Procurement and the terms of the tender.

In addition, an integral part of the tender documentation was the statement of Marko Carević that he was not in conflict of interest in this job:

“I hereby declare that I am not in a conflict of interest and that there is no economic and other personal interest that can compromise my objectivity and impartiality in this public procurement procedure”.

Data from the MANS Investigative Centre show that the Podgorica-based company used Carinvest’s equipment to participate in tenders in other municipalities such as Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi.

Gradiošnica

Tunnel Meljine – Zelenika

Behind the company “Asfalt-beton gradnja” is Vladimir Mirković, who was arrested in the “Klap” operation at the end of July last year on the order of the Special State Prosecutor, due to suspicion that he was part of an organized criminal group dealing with money laundering and tax evasion in the multimillion amount.

Mid last year, in the show Načisto on Vijesti Television, Marko Carević did not deny ties with this company. He even admitted that his family company participated as a subcontractor, although this was not officially stated anywhere in the tender documentation.

Article 16 of the Law on Public Procurement obliged Carević to report an obvious conflict of interest, because he had an undisputed private interest in the procedure of concluding the contract with Asfalt-beton gradnja.