Within a month, the commercial court will issue a verdict in the dispute initiated against the state by the private company "Univerzal Monte", which is demanding the payment of 4.000.000 euros with interest, based on the suspension of toll collection on the Meljine-Petijevići road. The hearing in this dispute ended yesterday.
The outcome of this dispute is also monitored by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), to which the Ministry of Finance submitted on November 2, 2022, documentation on the termination of the contract between the state and the company "Univerzal Monte", which provided for the abolition of tolls with compensation from the state of four million. At the beginning of last year, the SDT told "Vijesti" that they are monitoring the litigation in the Commercial Court because the outcome will be important for the prosecutor's decision.
Contract with the company "Univerzal Monte", behind which stands a Serbian businessman Vuk Hamovic, which built the Meljine - Petijevići road in 2008 according to the arrangement on the basis of which it was supposed to pay for it for 20 years and hand it over to the Municipality of Herceg Novi, was terminated by agreement on May 7, 2021, by the Government of the Prime Minister Zdravka Krivokapića, after which the toll on this section stopped being collected and the state undertook to pay compensation of four million. The agreement was signed on behalf of the state by the former Minister of Finance and Social Welfare and the current Prime Minister Milojko Spajic and on behalf of the municipality of Herceg Novi, its president Stevan Katic.
The government then tasked the Ministry of Finance to, according to the agreement, provide four million euros in the budget for the following year for the payment of compensation to "Univerzal Monte". The ministry, which Spajić managed, did not do that. Instead, at the last session of the former Government in April 2022, it was concluded that this money should be paid from the budget reserve.
This obligation is followed by the Government Dritan Abazović did not perform, but forwarded the documentation related to this work to the SDT, while "Univerzal Monte" initiated a lawsuit against the state demanding the payment of four million plus VAT. The state responded with a counterclaim demanding the annulment of the agreement, and "Univerzal Monte" meanwhile waived its claim in the amount of EUR 840.000 for VAT, which reduced the alleged debt.
The agreement was then terminated without the consent of the Ministry of Capital Investments (MKI), which was headed by the minister Mladen Bojanic, which announced that it could not take over the management of this share.
At the hearing in the Commercial Court, the lawyer of the company "Univerzal Monte" Mladen Ivanovic yesterday he stated that that company fulfilled its part of the obligations from the BOT agreement (take, build, use and return), which is why he proposed that the court accept the lawsuit, that is, that the state undertake to pay 4.000.000 euros to that company, with interest calculated from February 1, 2022, until the time of payment.
Deputy protector of property and legal relations of the state Slavica Laković stated that they dispute that request in its entirety and that it is unfounded, and that they are asking for it to be rejected. Laković requested that the counterclaim be adopted, with which they want to establish that the BOT agreement from 2007 is null and void. Ivanovic replied that they want the counterclaim to be rejected as unfounded.
On January 19 last year, Spajić said on the show "Nachisto" that no one called him from the Prosecutor's Office and that he was looking at the state interest in relation to this decision and that he can't wait for the Prosecutor's Office or someone else to come up with an argument against his.
The company "Univerzal Monte" told "Vijesta" at the beginning of this year that if they do not win this dispute against the state in the Commercial Court, they will continue the dispute before international instances, which will additionally cost millions of euros in interest.
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