Today, MANS filed a criminal complaint with the Special State Prosecutor’s Office against the former Minister of Finance in the 43rd Government of Montenegro, Aleksandar Damjanović, due to the suspicion that he had abused his official position and enabled benefits for the company “Carinvest” in the process of awarding a concession for the exploitation of stone at the “Platac” site.
In the criminal complaint, former minister Damjanović is accused of having signed the Agreement on the award of a concession for a period of 30 years with the company “Carinvest” on behalf of the Government of Montenegro at the end of August this year, even though he was previously aware of the fact that the procedure of the company selection was carried out contrary to the law.
Namely, last year, MANS warned the Government of Montenegro and the competent Ministry of Capital Investments that the public advertisement and the concession act were adopted on the basis of data provided by the company “Carinvest” itself, which is contrary to the Law on Concessions.
Article 18 of the Law expressly forbids participation in the tender for persons who participated in the drafting of the concession act, while the data from the concession act show that the elaborate of the company “Carinvest” that won the tender was used for the calculation of stone reserves at the “Platac” location.
Although the entire preparation of tender documents was carried out by the Ministry of Capital Investments, the contract with the Carević family was nevertheless signed by the then Minister of Finance, Aleksandar Damjanović.
The company “Carinvest”, owned by the family of the former President of the Municipality of Budva, Marko Carević, has been extracting stone at the “Platac” site for the last 15 years. Although there were conditions to terminate this contract because Carević transferred the ownership of the company to his son without the consent of the competent ministry, it did not happen.
After a new contract was signed with the Carević family in August for additional 30 years, their company will actually be able to use the quarry for at least 45 years, which is a decision that could not have been adopted by the Government, but by the Parliament.
Signing of the contract completed the work initiated by Carević himself, i.e. his company “Carinvest” on whose initiative the concession act was drafted, as well as amendments to the annual Concession Plan for detailed geological research and exploitation of mineral resources for 2021.
In the criminal complaint, MANS proposed to the Special State Prosecutor to question the former Minister Damjanović, the owner of the Carinvest company, Milan Carević, and his father Marko as the former owner, as well as the former ministers of Capital Investments in the 42nd and 43rd Government of Montenegro on the circumstances related to the disputed award of the concession.
MANS
