Former representative of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights Valentina Pavličič warned the government at the end of last year that the court in Strasbourg could already decide on the petitions of hundreds of former employees of "Radoj Dakić" in the first quarter of this year, which, according to estimates, could cost the state about ten million euros.
Today, in a letter to the Government dated December 13, which "Vijesti" has access to, the national consultant of the Council of Europe stated that the decision on those petitions will follow an accelerated procedure, because it is a matter of well-established court practice. She also stated that the former Govt Dritan Abazović On November 24, 2022, on the basis of prepared data obtained from the Commercial Court and consolidated in the document Information, it passed conclusions which, among other things, oblige the Ministry of Finance to provide 10.057.739 euros from the current budget reserve for settlement based on future judgments.
Current Government Milojko Spajić she did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" whether they took into account the letter from Pavličić and whether money was provided in the budget for the payment of former employees, petitioners.
The State of Montenegro was sued before the European Court by a total of 605 applicants, who were united in seven cases. Last week, the court passed three judgments obliging the government to pay claims based on final judgments for part of the former employees of "Dakić" for their wages. These are the cases "Bešović et al. v. Montenegro" (40 applicants), "Adrović et al. v. Montenegro" (356 applicants) and "Dedić et al. v. Montenegro" (four applicants).
The remaining verdicts are expected by the end of April.
After the European Court submitted the petitions to Pavličić as the representative at the time, in June 2022, she submitted to the Government Information regarding the petitions of the Dakić family, in which it was stated that out of a total of 605 petitioners, the Commercial Court began settlement for 379 petitioners, the status of separate creditors, in different proportions.
He notes that the settlement of different creditors - petitioners is done proportionally, from the sale of real estate, which are in the bankruptcy estate of the bankrupt debtor, in the order of settlement.
"It can be concluded that the total claimed and recognized claim of these 605 applicants is in the amount of 17.513.243,43 euros (according to the list of recognized and disputed claims) and that, according to the data provided by the Commercial Court of Montenegro, it has been settled 6.538.919 euros", stated Pavličić in the then Information that "Vijesti" has access to.
These amounts have been changed as of today, considering that in the meantime there were more payments in the bankruptcy proceedings.
The new representative of Montenegro before the European Court Katarina Peković she told "Vijesti" that immediately after receiving the judgment of the European Court, she asked the Commercial Court to provide her as soon as possible with precise data on unpaid amounts for each applicant based on relevant data on the current status of the bankruptcy proceedings in "Dakić".
"The total number of former employees of the company 'Radoje Dakić' who are awaiting payment and the total amount of their unpaid claims is data that is exclusively owned by the Commercial Court, which conducts the bankruptcy proceedings in question," Peković said in response to the question of how many states, based on petitions, should to pay former workers.
Files submitted to SDT
When asked who is to blame for the fact that the decisions of the domestic courts in favor of the former employees of "Dakić" were not implemented, she answered that it is within the jurisdiction of the prosecution.
On Friday, "Vijesti" sent a question to the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), but the answer did not arrive.
As previously announced, the complete files related to the bankruptcy of the former construction machinery factory were in the SDT for one period, which is why all actions in this procedure were stopped until the documentation was returned to the Commercial Court, i.e. the judge Dragan Vucevic, who was assigned the case after the arrest of the former president of that court Blaž Jovanić. Jovanić is being tried on the indictment of the SDT for abuse of official position and fraud in bankruptcy proceedings, among other things in the bankruptcy proceedings in "Radoj Dakić".
Valentina Pavličić confirmed to the "News" that she submitted the complete files for "Dakić" to the SDT in 2022, considering that the proceedings for Jovanić were ongoing. She said that it was also to the office of the Chief Special Prosecutor Vladimir Novović submitted the documentation that she collected in this case for the purpose of assessing the existence of potential liability.
Bankruptcy in "Dakić" was introduced in 2016 at the request of the Tax Administration due to a debt of around 10,7 million euros, 70 years after the establishment of the factory.
"Radoje Dakić" was the largest factory for the production of construction machinery in SFRY, and it was also among the largest factories of that profile in Europe. It was exported to Germany, Austria, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Guinea. In 1989, before the collapse of the SFRY, the factory had about 4,6 thousand workers.
Workers have been trying to collect their debts for a long time, and have been organizing protests for almost two decades, in different groups.
The Dakić family reported claims of around 50 million
From the Commercial Court, which is now headed by a judge Mladen Grdinić, told "Vijesta" that the total amount of reported claims of former employees in "Dakić", based on unpaid net wages, with statutory default interest, is 49.950.000 euros.
Judge, spokesperson of the Commercial Court Vladimir Bulatović in his reply to "Vijesta" he stated that in the course of the procedure so far, in accordance with the settlement decisions, 40.319.101 euros have been paid, while the part of the claim that has not been settled amounts to 9.630.898 euros.
"Out of the total amount of settled claims, in the last two years alone, the amount of 17.328.616 euros was paid, while it must be borne in mind that in relation to each decision on settlement, an objection to the bankruptcy judge is allowed, and in relation to the decision of the bankruptcy judge on objection, an appeal to the Appellate Court of Montenegro is allowed," said Bulatović.
The participants in the procedure, as he added, expressed objections and then appeals in relation to each settlement decision, which is their right and ultimately strengthens legal certainty and affirms the regularity and legality of the work of the bankruptcy administrator and the court, but it also affects duration of the procedure.
He reminds that the opening of the bankruptcy proceedings against "Dakić" was preceded by enforcement proceedings which were conducted before the Basic Court in Podgorica, initiated in order to collect the workers' claims.
"However, bearing in mind that this is a procedure that was not conducted before this court, we cannot provide you with more detailed information as to why the workers failed to collect their claims in that procedure. The settlement of claims in bankruptcy proceedings is carried out after the liquidation of the bankruptcy estate, which, among other things, is conditioned by the prior resolution of disputed property-legal relations over the things and rights that make up the bankruptcy estate. After the eventual cashing out of the remaining bankruptcy estate, conditions would be created for further settlements of bankrupt and separate creditors," said Bulatović.
Bankruptcy proceedings take an excessively long time
In a letter to the Government from December last year, Pavličić stated that on March 3, 2022, the European Court informed the Office of the Representative that the petitioners are former employees of "Radoj Dakić" in bankruptcy, a company that was transformed from social property into a joint stock company, and that the state of Montenegro is the majority owner of the capital of the aforementioned joint stock company in the amount of 50,579 percent.
"In their petitions, the petitioners presented complaints regarding the duration of non-enforcement of final and enforceable judgments and court settlements of domestic courts, as well as the duration of bankruptcy proceedings before the Commercial Court of Montenegro (Article 6 of the Convention), and everything related to the peaceful enjoyment of property (Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention), she specified.
Pavličić stated that the European Court marked the petitions of the Dakić family as a "fast-track wecl group of cases", that is, as a group of cases in which it has already taken a position in relation to the issues from these petitions, which indicates that the decision on these petitions will go through the expedited procedure.
"In the specific case, the European Court, taking into account its judicial practice in similar cases, offered the state of Montenegro to submit a unilateral declaration, which implies the examination of the case within the framework of the friendly-settlement procedure, leaving no possibility of investment complaints on the basis of the previous question of admissibility of the mentioned petitions or legal questions on which the European Court previously decided in similar cases against Montenegro", she stated.
As she added, the European Court was informed about the paid and settled claims for each individual applicant through a precisely specified tabular presentation of all applicants.
Information about this was submitted to the Minister of Finance and the Government, which was adopted by the conclusion of June 23, 2022.
Pavličić pointed out that until then, no unified documentation existed in any of the state bodies in possession of these cases on any decision-making basis (Constitutional Court of Montenegro, Commercial Court, Ministry of Finance and Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro) determination of relevant facts in specific cases, key to determining the total amount of money claimed in legally binding, and completely unenforced court judgments and settlements of former employees of "Radoje Dakić", which in any case made it difficult to prepare a statement to the European Court and submit relevant documentation with accurate and precise already paid individual amounts.
She also reminded that the bankruptcy proceedings before the Commercial Court take an excessively long time and exceed the standards of a reasonable period, which the European Court considers appropriate.
"In addition, the subject procedure was followed by a series of events, which also affected the course of the procedure itself, such as: changes of bankruptcy judges and bankruptcy trustees several times (of which criminal proceedings and certain detentions were initiated against some of them), so I can to say that the relevant documentation was properly submitted only by the last appointed bankruptcy judge and bankruptcy administrator, in whose jurisdiction is the implementation of the bankruptcy proceedings," said Pavličić.
And the Constitutional Court resolved constitutional appeals for a long time
He also reminds that the Constitutional Court found a violation of the right to a fair trial and the right to property, where the Ministry of Finance was ordered to pay the applicants, as victims of the violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time, 2.000 euros in the name of non-material damages for each applicant of a constitutional complaint as a form fair compensation, which the applicants did not even ask for.
"The last decision of the Constitutional Court was made at the session of October 24, 2023, with a separate opinion of one of the judges, and the constitutional appeals themselves were submitted to that court in 2017, 2018 and 2019, which indicates that the deadline for their resolution was long, in some cases even 5 or 6 years," said Pavličić.
As she added, Montenegro is obliged to comply with the final judgment of the Court in Strasbourg in each case, and to pay material and non-material compensation within three months from the date of the judgment. After that deadline, for each day of delay in payment, interest equal to the lowest interest rate of the European Central Bank with the addition of three percentage points would be calculated.
The state is also obliged to present, within six months, general measures to the Committee of Ministers through Action Plans, which will be undertaken to prevent the repetition of such violations in similar or identical situations. These cases are treated before the Committee of Ministers through special supervision and every step taken to remedy the violation is monitored, she explained.
In the Information that Pavličić submitted to the Government in June 2022, it is stated that she does not have information on whether, how much and in what amount there are unsold immovable properties in the bankruptcy proceedings, considering that this information was not submitted by the Commercial Court, although it was also requested from it is important that the Government could properly plan the funds for the remaining payment from the budget.
She also pointed out that in relation to the majority of applicants, there is no legal basis for making previous objections or observations, in terms of their validity, because in specific cases, according to the documents at her disposal, which were delivered by the European Court, it is concluded that their claims still partially or fully unsettled at the national level.
"Taking into account the above, Montenegro is obliged to execute judgments at the domestic level, as an integral part of the right to a fair trial, guaranteed by Article 6 of the Convention, and in this particular case related to the right to property, guaranteed by Article 1 of Protocol no. 1 to the Convention", said Pavličić.
She recommended to the Government to instruct the competent ministries to draw up an Action Plan that will include in a clear, centralized and transparent manner the exact number of unenforced final judgments and, on that basis, the total sum of unsettled recognized claims with a proposal and records of settlement, the execution time frame, which includes applicants, whose settlements were not made in the bankruptcy proceedings, so that it could inform the European Court.
"In this way, the state of Montenegro would eventually get the opportunity to perform the aforementioned obligations before the Committee of Ministers in accordance with its planned material obligations within a reasonable period of time. This possibility is also indicated by the judicial practice of certain countries in the region, which have opted for a systematic and comprehensive solution to the issue of enforcement of national judgments, where former social and later state enterprises appear as debtors," Pavličić pointed out.
Mrdović: A prime example of dark privatization-bankruptcy sagas
Executive Director of Action for Social Justice (ASP) Ines Mrdovic she said that the workers should have been paid on time for what they earned and what belonged to them, even before the bankruptcy, and not to "play" with rights and justice at the expense of the state.
"This is one of the exemplary examples of dark privatization-bankruptcy sagas in this country, which lasted for years and is still going on, and which could end up costing the citizens tens of millions of euros," Mrdović told "Vijesta".
To this day, it is not known what the total cost of this case will be in the end, i.e. it is not known how much the total amount of all the workers' claims with interest will be, and how much will be legal and court costs, what is recoverable, what is not, and how much will be collected from the state coffers .
"Citizens are certainly interested in who allowed the workers not to be paid for what belongs to them and what was theirs, so later the court proceedings dragged on indefinitely, with the real danger of millions being taken from the state coffers. Because of this, the question of responsibility would have to be raised, but it is unclear whether that will happen, because it is clear to everyone who wants to objectively observe judicial processes that in this country, in the delivery of justice, "the devil has long ago taken the joke". And while such a situation lasts, the only constant is that every guild is eventually paid by the citizens from the state coffers," Mrdović said.
Jovanić's mother and his brother's children have apartments in City Quarter
On the site of the former factory, the luxurious Siti Kvart neighborhood sprung up, where the mother Blaž Jovanić, as previously announced, has a 64-square-meter apartment, which was offered as bail so that Jovanić could defend himself from the charges. The court accepted his family's bail of around 770 thousand euros in real estate.
As previously announced by the Action for Social Justice (ASP), another apartment in Sita quarter offered as a guarantee for Jovanić's freedom, which is valued at 160 thousand euros, is 94 square meters, and is owned by the minor children of Jovanić's brother. Jovanić's freedom was also guaranteed by his swastika with an apartment in a building near the City Quarter, which was estimated to be worth 167 euros, as well as a pasture with business premises in the City Quarter, with an estimated value of 192 euros.
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