Negotiations between the Ministry of Capital Investments and the builder of the section of the highway from Podgorica to Mateševo, the Chinese company CRBS, regarding additional payments and completion deadlines are still ongoing, and if there is no agreement, arbitration will be held in Zurich, the Ministry of Capital Investments told "Vijesta" .
The official supervision of the works determined that the delays due to the covid pandemic should not have been longer than 48 days. Delays due to this situation according to changes in deadlines lasted for about a year and a half.
According to the contract, the state has the right to collect penalties for any delay by the contractor. In the event of a delay in the completion of the works, FIDIC rules are applied, according to which the compensation for damages due to the delay is calculated in the amount of 0,01 percent of the contract amount per day for delays of up to 90 days, and after a period of 90 days, the daily compensation amounts to 0,02 percent of the contracted term. the price is 809 million euros, so 0,01 percent would amount to 80,9 thousand euros per day.
Penalties for a year of delay 51 million?
For example, if the contractor's unjustified delay of one year were proven, the penalties would amount to 51 million euros. However, the contractor also has the right to compensation if the delays were caused by the error of the investor, that is, the state, as well as if he had increased costs due to errors in the technical documentation, which he received from the investor.
"The contractor's requests for additional payments and an additional deadline for implementation, which he was entitled to according to the Design and Construction Agreement, are treated in the agreed procedures, the details of which cannot be discussed until they are completed, which the public will be informed about. If the disputes were ultimately conducted in arbitration, it would be before the Arbitration Court of the Chamber of Commerce in Zurich, in accordance with the Agreement. According to the evaluations of the Supervisory Authority, all the claims of the contractor for additional funds and an additional period of implementation are considered unjustified, except for the request for an additional period of implementation, namely 48 days, due to the work in the globally expressed consequences of the covid-19 pandemic", stated "News" from the Ministry .
The project was started while the Ministry of Transport was in charge Ivan Brajović. CRBC for that period, as previously announced, has objections to the preparation of the project, geological maps and other parts of technical documentation and projects, which is why the main construction works started only a year after the introduction into the work.
The work was then continued to be monitored by the ministry he headed Osman Nurkovic. He signed an annex on the extension of the deadline for the completion of the works. Then there was a dispute regarding whether the basic contract also provided for the construction of the first phase of the "Smokovac" interchange. Nurković and the then prime minister Dusko Markovic at the beginning they claimed that the loop was contracted, but in the end they agreed to pay an additional 30 million for that work, which was done as a subcontractor by the company "Bemax".
How the deadlines were changed
According to the basic contract, the deadline for the completion of the works was four years, i.e. May 11, 2019, and Nurković signed an annex extending it until September 30, 2020, without determining the culprit for the delay and the obligation to pay a penalty.
As then, the works are not finished, and the new Government was elected only in December 2020. The new line minister Mladen Bojanic signed a second annex at the beginning of 2021, which extends the deadline until November 30 of that year, with the obligation to calculate penalties for delay and compensation after the completion of construction.
The highway was not opened even after that deadline. Although there was a change of government, the old board of directors of "Monteput" was dismissed only in September 2021, due to the fact that they changed the company's statute on their own and tried to prevent their dismissal.
Although the deadline of November 30 was approaching, the previous board of directors and management of "Monteput" did not complete the procurement of the necessary equipment and installations for the operation and maintenance of the highway. The public procurement procedure was only initiated by the new administration. According to the law, the highway cannot be opened without equipment for supervision, security and maintenance, so the last delay of about six months could be the responsibility of the state, that is, the former administration of "Monteput".
This section of the highway was opened only on July 13 this year, i.e. three years and two months late.
855 million has been paid to CRBC so far
According to data from the Ministry of Interior, the company CRBC has been paid 855 million euros so far - 797.515.593,50 euros for the main construction works, 8.601.206,74 euros for the temporary supply of electricity to the construction site, 30.196.107,02 euros for the first phase of the "Smokovac" interchange, 13.483.672,95 euros, for the water supply system 4.805.504,87 euros and for the installation of cable sewerage on the open route and bridge "Moračica" XNUMX euros.
With this, the basic price was exceeded by 46 million euros for the works performed by CRBC and its subcontractors. However, there were also works carried out by others, so "Monteput" paid 39 million euros for the construction of the electrical network on the highway. This company also financed installation equipment, purchase of maintenance equipment...
The route proposal for the Adriatic-Ionian highway is not ready yet
The state should soon define the route of the Adriatic-Ionian highway, which would enter Montenegro from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and would intersect with the Bare - Boljare highway near Farmak above Podgorica.
"The contact point of the Adriatic-Ionian highway (continental variant) between Montenegro and BiH has already been defined in the town of Nudo, and the preparation of documentation would have to be based on the new Spatial Plan of Montenegro until 2040, which is being prepared. For this project, in 2009, a justification study was done that treated this highway direction together with the Bar-Boljare highway, when the conceptual solution for this project was prepared. It is important to point out that part of the indicative extension of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) through Montenegro is not this but the so-called The blue highway, which treats the route of the expressway along the Montenegrin coast, and that the results of the just completed Bar-Boljare highway feasibility study indicate that the state must carefully define the priorities for the implementation during the construction period of the entire Bar-Boljare highway, which means within the assumed framework until 2035. it was announced from the Ministry.
Fast road from Andrijevica?
At the recent presentation of the feasibility study for the remaining sections of the highway, the possibility of building an expressway from Andrijevica to Boljar rather than the full profile of the highway was mentioned.
"The question of the profile of the Andrijevica-Boljara section is still open. How will the justification study be updated before the start of construction of each section, this issue will be additionally expertly reviewed, taking into account all aspects of implementation, as well as the profile of the border section from the Serbian side", stated the MKI.
Start of construction of the new section at the end of 2024.
The construction of the next section of the Mateševo - Andrijevica highway could only begin at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025, and part of the money is expected from EU funds.
"The fact is already known to the public that the preparation of conceptual projects and studies of environmental and social impact assessment is in progress, which is financed by grants from the European Commission (5,5 million euros) allocated through the mechanism of the Investment Framework for the Western Balkans, and whose completion is expected at the beginning of 2023. The selection of designers was made in accordance with the Donor's Methodology, independently of the investors - beneficiaries of the funds. According to the same source, in August of this year, requests were submitted for the allocation of grants for the preparation of the main projects with accompanying technical documentation, tender documentation and updating of the feasibility study (10,56 million euros), in order to create the conditions for the end of 2024 or the beginning of In 2025, he announced a tender for the construction of the first next section on the stretch from Mateševo to Andrijevic, as a logical construction and functional continuation of the current investment. For the construction of this section, 40% of the estimated value would be provided from the grants of the Investment Framework for the Western Balkans, and the rest is intended to be provided by borrowing from the EBRD (and/or other international financial institutions) and from the state budget", the Ministry stated.
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