The highway commission is now asking for more money

The State Commission for the Technical Review of Works on the Construction of the Bar-Boljare Highway is asking the Government for additional money for its work, and the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism has prepared a draft conclusion for the Government session on January 13, which rejects that request, but at the end of the discussion on this topic, it was not adopted.

All this can further complicate the opening of this section of the highway, because not all works have been completed yet, and its opening to traffic is not possible without the green light of this commission.

According to "Vijesti" information, the Commission requested that the decision on its establishment be changed because the deadline for the completion of the works and the handover of the building was November 30, and that the works continued as well as the commission's work. The budget for last year provided 630 thousand euros for the work of this Commission, and that money was spent before the end of November.

The ministry he heads Ratko Mitrović in the explanation of the conclusion rejecting the Commission's request, stated that from the beginning of work in 2015 until the end of last year, it received three and a half million euros (3.541.641,83 euros) from the budget. They stated that such a commission for the technical inspection of a similar section in Serbia - Grdelic Gorge completed the work for a much smaller amount of money.

"Based on the comparative analysis of the City Expertise Institute from Belgrade, where the most adequate comparison for price analysis - the Grdelic gorge - is shown, the cost price for the technical inspection is about 10.000 euros per kilometer, while in this particular case the cost price for the technical inspection of the car is - road Bar - Boljare priority section Smokovac-Uvač-Mateševo ​​85.000 euros per kilometer", stated in the conclusion proposed by the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism.

In the announcement of the agenda for the 54th session of the Government from January 13 of this year, the point "Information on the Proposal to Change the Decision on the Appointment of the State Commission for the Technical Review of Works on the Construction of the Bar-Boljare Highway, Priority Section Smokovac-Uvač-Mateševo" was also mentioned. However, this information was not included in the materials published after the Government session.

When asked whether this point of the agenda was adopted, the Ministry replied to "Vijesti" that the statement regarding this proposal was postponed until the session that will be held next week.

According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", during the discussion of this proposal at the Government, a discussion was started about the work of this Commission, and the line Ministry made a number of remarks about the spending of money, work deadlines, the number of members, their previous involvement...

Because of all this, it was proposed that the material on the Commission's work be further analyzed, and that a conclusion be drawn on that at the session during the next session.

The budget for this year for the work of this commission foresees the amount of 160 thousand euros, which according to its current consumption, would be enough for a maximum of three months.

According to information from the Government, by January 11, 98,7 percent of the necessary works on this section had been completed. There is a small part of asphalt and concrete works that cannot be carried out now because of the snow and low temperatures, as well as part of the electrical works. Also, in order for the section to receive technical approval, it is necessary for Monteput to provide and equip maintenance services. This was not done before by the former management of Monteput, while the new management was appointed only in mid-December last year due to disputed parts of the statute that protected the former management from dismissal.

The new director included the procurement of the necessary machinery and equipment in the plan for this year, and that plan was adopted at the session three days ago, so the conditions for announcing these public procurements are only now being met. All this could delay the opening of the stock for a month or two.

Having already spent 700 thousand euros more than planned, Đukanović declared her work secret

The State Commission for the Technical Inspection of Works on the Construction of the Bar-Boljara Highway was established by a decision from May 2015 and has 27 members.

With the disputed decision on establishment, which was signed by the Prime Minister at the time Milo Djukanovic, it was determined that the work of this Commission is secret: "The work of the Commission is considered a business secret and no member of the Commission has the authority to communicate outside the Commission any information related to the scope of the Commission's work".

Also, in the same decision, it is stipulated that the total amount of money for the work of this Commission is 0,35 percent of the contracted price of "works for the design and construction of the priority section of the highway Bar-Boljare, Smokovac-Uvač-Mateševo, which based on the contracted price of 809.577.356,14 "2.833.520,74 euros equals XNUMX euros".

In relation to that amount, the Commission has already spent about 700 thousand euros more, which was approved by the former Governments through changes in decisions, and last time in February 2020.

The decree established that the amount of compensation for each member of the Commission is determined proportionally to the participation of the relevant area in the overall technical review, as well as based on the actual scope of engagement in the review of works, at the proposal of the President of the Commission. Also, it is allowed that the members of the Commission can hire one or more people for additional help in case of need, based on the prior consent of the President of the Commission.