The Ministry of Capital Investments (MKI) submitted to the Special State Prosecutor's Office information on indications of the existence of a criminal offense of abuse of power in connection with the consumption of working hours for the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant, as well as the initiated ecological reconstruction of the existing block.
As stated, the MKI submitted the Information with accompanying documentation to the SDT for the purpose of acting in accordance with the competences of that prosecution.
As a reason for submitting the information, MKI cites, among other things, the fact that by the end of last year, the permitted 20.000 hours were spent for the operation of the Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja and its work continued, even though those hours should have been rationally spent until the end of 2023, which violated Montenegro's obligations as members of the European Energy Community (EEC).
"The environmental reconstruction of the TPP was initiated with a serious delay and without a high-quality project, which would guarantee that, after the reconstruction, Block I will meet the limit values of polluting substances, in accordance with EU directives", it is stated in the information from the department of Minister Mladen Bojanić, in which "News ” have insight.
The ecological reconstruction of Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant worth 54 million euros was awarded to a consortium consisting of the Chinese DEC international, Bemax, BB Solar of Blaž Đukanović (son of the President of the Republic Milo Đukanović) and the Podgorica company Permonte.
MKI reminds that from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2023, the operation of the TE was reduced to a total of 20.000 hours, in accordance with the decisions of the EEC, and that from 2018 to the end of 2020, the TE achieved the highest electricity production of of the start of work.
"From this, there are grounds for suspicion that the management of the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) is aware, and with full knowledge of all the negative consequences for the state, due to the violation of its commitments to the EEC, the operation of the TE was designed in such a way as to consume all working hours by the end of 2020 ", according to the Ministry of Interior.
They add that this was done with the full knowledge of the previous Government and the Ministry of Economy. It is stated that the tender for the public procurement of the environmental reconstruction of the TPP was changed after the announcement in such a way as to allow for a significant extension of the period of completion of the work, and the contract was concluded without an analysis of economic justification, "which leads to the suspicion that the contracted 54 million euros will be largely spent in vain , because the limit values of polluting substances will not be met, so Elektroprivreda (EPCG) will pay large fees for emissions of polluting substances".
The MKI also states that the contract was concluded in violation of the legal and tender procedures, a delay was tolerated in the preparatory phase of the contract implementation and the works have not yet started, "which calls into question whether the works will even be completed by the end of 2023".
"In all the ways described above, the future operation of the thermal power plant and thus the security of the electricity supply in the country have been called into question, and the risk of paying extremely high electricity prices due to potential imports has been created," warned the Ministry of Interior.
They add that despite the corona epidemic and the completely uncertain outcome, the management of EPCG decided to continue with the implementation of the project, and the contract for the execution of works on the environmental reconstruction of the thermal power plant was signed on June 10, 2020.
They indicate that the consortium was obliged to provide an advance guarantee before concluding the contract, in the amount of the agreed advance, which is 20 percent of the agreed value. However, as they add, before signing the contract for the execution of the works, the chosen consortium submitted an advance guarantee in the amount of 8.996.314 euros, which is 20 percent of the price of the contracted works, but without VAT, which means that the tender procedures and the agreed conditions were violated. because the advance guarantee must include the amount of VAT.
"Almost five months later, that is, on October 2, 2020, the consortium submitted an advance guarantee for the amount, which corresponds to the amount of 20 percent of the contracted value of the work, i.e. to 10.885.540 euros", said the MKI.
They also state that the Chinese company DEC, the holder of the Consortium, did not have a registered company in Montenegro at the time of signing the contract in order to be able to perform the tasks arising from the contract for the execution of works.
2,7 million to the younger Đukanović, 10 to Bemax and six to Permont
According to the contract on ecological reconstruction of Block I TE, the price for Donfang is 35.922.282 euros, for Bemax Podgorica 9.796.986 euros, BB Solar 2.721.385 and Permonte Podgorica 5.987.047 euros.
On July 3, 2019, the EPCG Board of Directors made decisions on the approval of the investment, with an estimated value of public procurement of EUR 45.000.000, excluding VAT. It was determined that the deadline for the preparation of the Master Project should be "a maximum of 6 months from the date of entry into force for the preparation of the Master Project, including the revision of the Master Project".
The tender was announced on July 11, 2019, and lasted until September 9.
MKI reminds that, despite the delay in the announcement of the tender and the limited time for the operation of the thermal power plant, which has been going on for a long time, EPCG has extended the deadline for the submission of tender offers until October 14, 2019.
In addition, Elektroprivreda, as they add, changed the deadline for the preparation of the Master Project, in such a way that the amendment prescribed that the deadline "for the preparation of the Master Project is a maximum of 5 months from the date of entry into force of the public procurement contract, which period does not include the deadline for revision of the Main Project".
"This leaves an undefined deadline for the revision of the Main Project, so in practice this can maximally extend the time for the revision of the project, and thus the realization of the investment," said the MKI.
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