Vasilije, I'm sorry

Ah, poor Vasilije, in his late years, works all day, and that for free, on Sunday morning, once again, neither guilty nor indebted, he felt all the anger and numerous insults of impatient travelers on his skin. And, according to eyewitnesses, there was nothing but grunting and cursing, especially while the citizens present were trying to repair the bow ramp. And they completed it, but along the way they mentioned Vasilije's immediate and distant family, from the father's side, so who arrived where.

Apart from Vasilije's, some other names were heard at the pier in Lepetani, but we will not mention them here because, unlike the unfortunate ferry, they would surely be enraged. Vasilije has to endure everything without saying a word, even though he is the least guilty. And what will he do, where will he go? Vasilije found himself in the vortex of the democratic transition and he has no choice but to remain silent and wonder like thousands of others in Montenegro.

Rather, let's leave Vasilij to his evil fate and see what we have here - what would a waiter say in the middle of a boisterous drunken party, fearing that he will miss a tour without being paid.

It all started about twenty years ago, and how could it be otherwise, than with the Godfather and his godchildren. Legend has it that on that beautiful morning, Milo took his pets Dejan and Dusan for a walk in Tivat, or was it Herceg Novi, anyway. And as it usually happens, word by word - a business idea. Not long after, the Ban brothers already transported the first passengers and cars from Kamenar to Lepetan.

The business was, as it always is when Milo comes up with something, very profitable, according to the godfather principle: minimum investment - maximum profit.

So it would. Let's remember that "Maritime Transport" was privatized without a public tender, by purchasing state shares on the stock exchange in 2004. For that company, the company "Prohouse" of the Podgorica businessmen brothers Ban and Željko Mihailović, paid 1,2 million euros to the state, of which only 680 thousand euros in cash, and the rest in old foreign currency savings bonds that it previously bought at discounted prices.

For the next 14 years, Dejan and Dušan made millions of profits using that company's monopoly on ferry operations in Boka, while Morski Dobr paid a monthly fee in the amount of four percent of the revenue generated by the sale of "Maritime Transport" services in the name of leasing the coast in Lepetani and Kamenari. Thus, Morsko dobro annually received between 200 and less than 300 thousand euros.

Until a few years ago, "Maritime Transport" refused to submit monthly traffic calculations to Morski Dobr, which led to court disputes between the two companies, and the State Audit Institution, when auditing Morski Dobr's financial reports, once "expressed a reservation in the manner and the amount of money paid by 'Maritime Transport' based on the contract on the use of marine assets".

The contract expired at the end of 2018, but "Marine Transport" in accordance with the conclusion of the Government of the then Prime Minister Duško Marković, continued to carry out ferry transportation in Boka unhindered.

Only seven months after the expiration of the basic contract, in the summer of 2019, Morsko dobro and the company of the Ban brothers signed an annex to the contract. With the conclusion from 2019, namely, the company "Pomorski sabražić" was enabled to extend with annexes the contract with the Public Enterprise for the Management of Maritime Assets on the lease of piers in Kamenari and Lepetani, which expired four years ago.

In March of last year, the Management Board of the Sea Property requested that the Government revoke the conclusion from 2019. However, the cabinet of the then prime minister Zdravko Krivokapić, here he is, did not make any announcements regarding that issue, so the kumics were able to continue their work unhindered. In August 2019, the Annex to the Agreement on the Use of Maritime Assets from 2004 was concluded, which extends its duration indefinitely, that is, until the granting of a concession for the performance of liner maritime traffic on the Kamenari-Lepetani route.

Well, after that, another prime minister, Dritan Abazović, appears, a disruptive element in this, until then, business fairy tale. The government terminates the contract with "Marine Transport" and the ferry "Vasilije" departs from Lepetan on February 18, at 9.19:XNUMX a.m. for the first trip to Kamenari.

The Ban brothers, or Kumići, remain without work and profit after 19 years, but this story would not have the true Montenegrin taste if Dritan and company, terminating the contract, did not know who would transport passengers from Kamenar to Lepetan in the future and how.

Hence the scene from the beginning of the text, as well as the columns on the pier where at times people walked for several hours.

As expected, it can be concluded based on the previous experience with the "overthrow of Milo's government". As in many similar situations, more or less important levers are being pulled from the old government, and the new, even technical rulers, behave as if the whole of Montenegro is Vasilije's ferry.

And then they find it strange when citizens react most often like those who repaired the bow ramp on Sunday morning.

This story, obviously, has many elements in it that go far beyond, strictly speaking, a local story about the transportation of people and goods from point A to point B. Because, in one place, we have Milo, godfathers and godmothers, private business at the expense of the state, so Duška and Zdravka, and finally the creative chaos of Dritan Abazović. Rather, it could be said that in this short narrative about the Lepetane-Kamenovo ferry, in fact, the entire political history of the Montenegrin state in the last few decades is contained, and all of this is based on the example of Vasilij the Elder.

So, Vasilije, forgive me.