The Commercial Court once again challenged the right of the Municipality of Budva to be an intervener in the proceedings on the side of the Budva NGO "Građanska akcija", which filed a lawsuit to determine the nullity of the agreement on the transfer of shares from HTP "Budvanska Riviera" to the Government on May 15, 1997, which property worth one hundred million euros was unjustly taken from the metropolis of tourism.
Civil action, that is, its representative Bozidar Vujicic, filed a lawsuit with the Commercial Court contesting the agreement, because, according to that NGO, it was concluded contrary to Article 2 paragraph 1 point 20 of the Law on Local Self-Government.
In May of this year, the Court of Appeal accepted the appeal of the Municipality of Budva and annulled the decision of the Commercial Court, which disputed the right to local administration, and sent it back for re-decision with the suggestion that all deficiencies be eliminated in the re-procedure.
The local government believes that this case should be dealt with by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SST).
"Participation of the Municipality of Budva as an intervener on the side of the plaintiff is rejected," reads the decision of the Commercial Court, which was adopted at the hearing on September 20.
Secretary for Property Protection of the Municipality of Budva Đorđe Zenović he told "Vijesti" that he was surprised by the new decision of the Commercial Court, after the Court of Appeal accepted the municipal appeal and sent the case back for a new decision.
"I don't want to comment on court decisions, but it is unbelievable that we were refused with the explanation that we have no legal or economic interest in a dispute that directly concerns the property of the municipality. It is clear that the period of ownership transformation of state-owned enterprises gave birth to a lot of regulations that enabled the robbery of citizens, workers, and municipalities that renounced their rights in favor of the companies of that time. Zenovic said.
The local government in Budva is convinced that in the case of ownership transformation and in the process of identification of state and municipal capital in the assets of the Budva Riviera, it has damaged valuable assets whose valuation reaches several tens of millions of euros.
"There are numerous other cases of privatization in the territory of our city in which the municipality has been damaged, and after we identify them, we will initiate legal actions in order to correct the injustice," Zenović stressed.
According to him, in this case, the Municipality collects documentation, assembles a legal and economic team that should prepare a lawsuit.
"Let's start slowly in a process that will probably open a pandora's box regarding the obvious robbery of the citizens of Budva and everything that they have invested in this now state-owned enterprise, which has meanwhile sold off its most valuable assets, through their work and financial contributions. We also expect the prosecution to finally open this case, because they will most certainly encounter numerous abuses with elements of organized crime," Zenović concluded.
Vujičić previously told "Vijesti" that state property, in the amount of about 160 million German marks, was invested in the Budva Riviera by the Municipality, that is, its citizens by paying taxes, contributions, fees, fees, ceding municipal land, funds from self-contributions to the municipal budget. …
"The shares that represented state capital in the Budva Riviera had to be transferred to the Municipality of Budva, not to the Government, because it did not invest the state property that the Government has at its disposal in the Budva Riviera," Vujičić stated in the lawsuit.
He said that money was paid from the municipal budget, based on the decisions of the local parliament, construction land was given to HTP Budva Riviera and then everything was transferred to the Government by agreement.
"The government sold off the largest number of hotels, the new owners often fenced off the hotels and registered public paths as internal paths, so that the citizens of Budva ended up losing public roads due to the government's actions," concluded Vujičić.
After two and a half decades, the company has five hotels left
In the past two and a half decades, from almost ten hotels, HTP Budvanska riviera" remained five hotels - Palas in Petrovac (four stars and 171 accommodation units), "Slovenska Plaža" Tourist Village in Budva (three plus and four stars with 1.016 accommodation units ), "Aleksandar" hotel in Budva (four stars, 187 accommodation units), Castellastva Petrovac hotel (four stars, 185 accommodation units) and "Mogren" hotel in Budva (three plus stars, 49 accommodation units).
The city hotel "Sveti Stefan" was excluded from the company two years ago, which was entrusted to the management of another government company "Sveti Stefan hotels".
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