The issue of the founding role of the Investment and Development Fund (IDF) of 7,93 million euros in the public company Regionalni vodovod - Montenegrin littoral cannot and must not be resolved at the expense of the state budget, but through the relationship between the two companies, the former president of the parliamentary Committee for Finances said. and budget, independent deputy Aleksandar Damjanović.
The State Audit Institution (DRI) indicated in the control audit of the Regional Water Supply that the payment of the founding role of IRF in the process of transforming the Regional Water Supply from JP is an unnecessary expenditure for the state budget of 7,93 million, plus interest (if it is not a one-time payment). into a limited liability company (DOO) which is ongoing, where the Government would be the sole owner.
Whether the Ministry of Finance will suggest to the Government that this recommendation be respected and that the state budget be saved millions of euros, or whether this cost is projected in the plans of the Ministry of Finance in the preparation of the budget for the next year is a question that "Vijesti" has not received an answer to until the publication of this text. department headed by Minister Darko Radunović.
Last year, the government made a decision on the transformation of the company, according to which it is the sole founder of the company, while in July of this year, it considered the information on the activities for the start of the LLC with the proposal of the Statute, but that process has not yet been completed.
"It is good that the Government is the sole founder after the transformation of the company, because it is also the owner of IRF, while the partnership with IRF opens the door to the partial privatization of the Regional Water Supply, which there is no need for," said Damjanović.
The IRF was not consulted
IRF, based on the conclusion of the Government in 2008 and 2010, has two stakes in the ownership of JP in the total amount of 7,9 million and on this basis, they said in IRF, "Vijesitma" has the capital of the Regional Water Supply at the end of last year 12,1 percent share.
"In 2017, the government made a decision to establish an LLC and that company was defined as a single-member company. In the entire process of preparation and the entire procedure, the IRF was not consulted, nor was it informed about the procedure for establishing a single-member company. Neither in the documentation that was processed according to the Government, there is no amount of EUR 7,9 million as IRF's participation in the Regional Waterworks, nor a proposal on how to dispose of that part of IRF's capital, which is indisputable. "The IRF repeatedly warned the Regional Waterworks and the relevant ministries about the problem of omitting 7,9 million euros," said the IRF.
They explained that in order to protect their part, they proposed two solutions: for IRF to continue to be one of the founders in the transformation with capital worth 7,9 million or for the Government or the Regional Waterworks to return that money to IRF.
Damjanović assessed that the control audit of the SAI and the polemic that opened between that institution and the Regional Waterworks indicated huge systemic problems in the functioning of most state and "mainly institutions politicized by the authorities" and the incalculable damages that are caused to the state in this way.
"The issue of payment for the founding stake of IRF is the tip of the iceberg of behind-the-scenes relations that have been going on since the establishment of the company in 2008, based on the decision of the Assembly, which further deepened the evident damage with the senseless control function in this convocation. This audit is handled by the prosecutor's office and the company has been in the public's focus for more than two years when the SAI published its business audit for 2016. To that should be added the events before the culmination of the "case", without which it is not possible to comprehensively view the current issue. Since 2011, the draft law on the regional water supply of the Montenegrin coast has been "hanging" in the parliamentary procedure, which the then government did not want to put on the agenda due to mutual calculations. I asked for it several times, and in 2015 I asked a parliamentary question pointing out the negative consequences of that situation. The final enactment of the law in 2016 contributed to the delay in the transformation of the company, and that process has not yet been formally completed," stressed Damjanović.
Committees made control meaningless
He assessed that the competent parliamentary committees for tourism and the economy made sense of the parliamentary supervision that they are obliged to do when it comes to the negative reports of the SAI.
"On the occasion of the SAI audit, two "consultative" and not control hearings were held in the Committee for Tourism. The first one in December 2017 resulted in no essential control and serious recommendations and with two or three devastating views on the need for "joint meetings". Second, again the consultative hearing in December 2018 will be remembered in the parliamentary history as an example of the biggest mockery of the control role of the parliament because it lasted 20 minutes, and who wants to know what the "results" are, the minutes of that session are available on the Parliament's website. The Committee for Economics also has its "active" role, which usually pretends to be "dead" by not finding it appropriate to hold a control hearing, at least because of the disputed 7,9 million euros. The strangest thing is the critical tone of the SAI's control audit, unprecedented in its intensity, and in the final report SAI states that the company achieved good results and fully or partially implemented 29 out of 32 recommendations, which is an excellent result, according to SAI's recognition, Damjanović said.
Damjanović added that we should not forget the contradictory judgments of the Montenegrin courts and the extremely debatable decision of the Court of Appeals, which ruled on the dispute with the Austrian Štrabag to the detriment of the company worth 12 million, and now we are waiting for the final decision of the Constitutional Court "which is usually in no hurry".
Useful decisions are better than political calculations
Damjanović believes that the correspondence between DRI and the Regional Waterworks and a kind of "spins" divert the topic from the essential issues that require serious discussion, and they concern the harmful legal solutions from 2016, which exempted investors for five-star hotels from fees, which made the public company less than two years old. in the year of application, at least 1,5 million euros were damaged.
"In addition, there are strategic business issues, because the company does not yet bottle water and does not export, and we have all been talking about this for ten years. In the end, citizens have the right to quality and cheap water, so it is necessary to openly discuss the concept of centralization and business connection of the regional and seven local water companies. This is due to the fact that the state does not have the luxury of managing water on the coast at the same time as many as eight water companies, and that the guild of such management and their mutual relations, as well as internal ambiguities, are paid for by citizens through high prices for water, often of problematic quality, from local springs. , pointed out Damjanović.
He added that it is necessary that, instead of political calculations, the burning issue of the consequences of the SAI control audit should be resolved, that the competent authorities should do their part as soon as possible and make appropriate decisions for that strategic company.
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