At the end of last month, the Directorate for Public Procurement of Montenegro published its Report for 2014, in which it presented Montenegro as a leader in the region when it comes to the regularity and transparency of public procurement.
Although the document entitled Report on public procurement in Montenegro for 2014 states that the problem of corruption in that area exists, through comparative data with countries in the region, the impression is created that it is almost paradise here. The administration, as an illustration of that paradise, states, among other things, that in the last year, procurements without a public tender were carried out in only 2,6 percent of cases, while those percentages in the neighborhood are higher, up to 39 percent, as is the case with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"Limited progress has been made in the area of public procurement. The efficiency and effectiveness of the public procurement system have improved, but progress in this direction should continue," the report states.
Sorting out the statistics for Brussels is clearly ongoing. Although the numbers that are the parameters of corruption in public procurement are decreasing, one thing remains the same – the list of ten companies with the most valuable deals with the state last year is almost identical to the list from 2013. These are mostly privileged companies of the prime minister's friends, godfathers or party comrades.
At the top of the list, in first and third place, there are traditionally large drug distributors, the companies Glosarij and Farmegra. During the last year, Glossary was engaged by the state and local governments on jobs worth over 20 million euros, while Farmegra got jobs worth close to 10 million euros. The situation was almost identical last year.
The owners of Farmegra are businessmen Sreten Đikanović and Janko Radunović, who according to the media were at the mercy of Miomir Mugoša, the former mayor of Podgorica, while the founder of the Glosarij company is businessman Branislav Martinović, former director of Bajfarm. Martinović was later replaced in that position by Oleg Obradović, the former chairman of the Board of Prva banka and one of the actors in the Telekom affair.
The fight between the two companies was in the background of the previous months-long insulin shortages on the market. The Research Center of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) announced last year that Glosarij and Farmegra were among the privileged companies that the Investment Development Fund (IRF) helped in 2013 through the allocation of favorable loans, but also through the purchase of their millions of claims, each for 1,8 .10 million euros. The IRF is headed by Zoran Vukčević, a DPS official. The glossary is also the first on the list of the largest individual deals with the state. It is about the procurement of medicines worth XNUMX million euros.
This year, they were joined at the very top of the largest bidders by Urion, a company whose privileged position in business with the state, in the field of medical equipment procurement, has been written about by Monitor several times. Last year, Urion won jobs worth over 4 million euros, which is a million more than in 2013. The owner of Urion is Milan Ćuković.
In third place on the list is the company Novi Volvox, which in 2014 received from the state jobs worth over 8,5 million euros, which is twice as much as in 2012. One of the owners of the company is Vladan Ivanović, the brother of Miodrag Ivanović, another actor in the affair. Telekom, and the former president of the Board of State Victory. Ivanovic is on friendly terms with the family of Prime Minister Đukanović. Vladan Ivanović is also the owner of the company Master Inženjering, which built the building in the city center, on Vuka Karadžića street, where Prva banka is located.
Novi Volvox is engaged in construction work, and one of the jobs on which the Government hired him was the final work on the Eco building, which, due to delays, was paid for from the budget instead of a donation, and in the construction of which the Prime Minister's son Blažo Đukanović was involved under suspicious circumstances, with the newly formed company BB Solar.
The new Volvox is at the very top of the list of the largest individual deals with the state. It is about the construction of power lines for the Montenegrin electric transmission system, worth 5.109.979 euros.
Kwhen it comes to nutrition, the company Veletex is on the throne again, which has been taking the largest sums from the budget for years. Last year, Veletex was engaged by the state on jobs worth 3.252.000 euros. Veletex is the only company in the field of food that was on the list of the largest bidders this year as well as last year. The owner of Veletex, Vlastimir Golubović, was on the councilor list of the Podgorica DPS in the last local elections.
Among the biggest bidders when it comes to nutrition, in previous years was the company Goranović from Nikšić, which deals with the meat industry. However, Goranović has not been among the top ten for two years. Among the biggest bidders for last year, as in 2013, there is no company Bemax, which in previous years was at the forefront in terms of the number of deals with the state. Although not among the top ten bidders, Bemax found its place on the list of the most valuable individual deals. It is about the construction of power lines for the Montenegrin electric transmission system worth 3.325.026 euros. Bemax did this work in a consortium with New Volvox.
However, the report for 2015 when it comes to Bemax will probably look different, considering that since the beginning of the year, deals between the state and the company that is linked to the capital of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Milan Roćen, which he has repeatedly denied.
In ninth place is Tehnogradnja Pljevlja, a company owned by Mirko Bjeković, a member of the municipal board of DPS in Pljevlja. During 2014, Technogradnja performed about two million euros worth of work for the state. When his party colleague Filip Vuković was the head of that city, Bejković's company was on the list of several companies to which the municipality paid debts, while the others waited.
In tenth place on the list is the construction company Ing invest from Danilovgrad, owned by Veselin Radulović. That company is often in the consortium for the RZUP of the prime minister's brother, Aleksandar Đukanović, when he bids for some of the jobs with the state. This was the case with the offer for the construction of the City Theater in Podgorica, the preparation of planning documents in Budva. They are often in a consortium with New Volvox Ivanovica, as in the construction of the Sports Hall in Žabljak.
Or have the stars aligned that the prime minister's closest associates are the most capable businessmen, or could it be something long? There is no one to check the latter in Montenegro.
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