The realization of the capital budget should amount to over 93 percent by the end of this year, announced the director general of the Directorate for Public Investment Management and Public Procurement Policy in the Ministry of Finance, Jelena Jovetić.
At the session of the Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget, which considered the report on the implementation of the capital budget of Montenegro for the third quarter, she said that 111 million was paid from the capital budget, which is somewhere around 47 percent.
"That's about 14 million more compared to the same period last year," said Jovetić.
She also presented the latest data related to 11 months, according to which 157 million euros were paid for the mentioned period, which is 66 percent of the realization of the capital budget.
That is about 28 million euros more than in the comparative period.
Jovetić reminded that by rebalancing the budget, they diverted additional funds related to the advance payment of the Mateševo-Andrijevica highway section.
"With these additional funds that have been diverted to other capital projects, we expect to intensify the dynamics of the realization of certain capital projects, so that by the end of the year we expect to pay for capital projects another 50 million, which will raise the realization of the capital budget to the level of over 93 percent", specified Jovetić.
Member of the Movement Europe now (PES), Dražen Petrić, said that 66 percent of the capital budget was realized, while the realization of 93 percent is expected, which is a high percentage.
"I agree that at the end of the year it is best to make a cross-section of the situation and see the real reasons why so much or so much of the budget was implemented," Petrić said.
He stated that he was not satisfied with the dynamics of the works on the Đalovića cave and the location of the Cmiljača ski center and asked when they would be completed.
The MP of PES, Tonći Janović, said that only mature projects with complete documentation were foreseen in the budget, and only such projects can lead to the expected 93 percent realization.
"Previously, projects were conceived that did not have any documentation, but were put forward because of election or pre-election promises. We changed that with this budget," said Janović.
He added that the capital budget for the next year is also designed.
Member of the Citizens' Movement URA, Miloš Konatar, said that this year's capital budget is higher than next year's, if the allocations for the highway for the next year are removed.
"For the third quarter, the execution is 237 million euros, and the entire budget for the next year is planned at 278 million euros, including the highway. So much for that when colleagues said that it was a record amount for the capital budget and that big infrastructure projects were waiting for us", specified Konatar.
He stated that the famous Velje brdo project was included in the proposed budget for next year, for which there is no planning documentation.
Speaking about the Velje brdo project, Janović said that this project exists, that ten million euros have been invested, and that it is a huge project that will be done in phases.
"We have a systemic solution to something that is a problem. Roads and infrastructure will be built first, and then the construction of residential units will begin," added Janović.
The deputy of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Andrija Nikolić, said that for the first three quarters, the implementation of the capital budget was 47 percent of the total planned amount, which had to be much higher.
"Unproductive billboard spending continues to grow, we have a trade deficit of three billion euros, as well as 1,7 thousand more blocked businesses compared to last year. Tourism, which finances 30 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), and we have a deficit of 50 million euros," said Nikolić and added that for the first time in 15 years, Montenegro recorded a drop in tourism revenues.
He assessed that Montenegro is the most expensive country in the region to live in, while the increased wages did not enable people to buy more but less.
"There are no qualitative changes, we have chaos in state-owned enterprises, the shutdown of Montenegro Airlines (MA), we have the announced sale of Plantaž, the shutdown of Željezara, Aman who left Montenegro and is conducting arbitration proceedings against the state," said Nikolić.
He stated that it was announced that we would start the second section of the highway, and that "there is no shovel there even today".
"There are no investments in Montenegro today. What we see is that there will be no qualitative changes in the next year either," added Nikolić.
The MP of the Bosniak Party (BS), Mirsad Nurković, said that these are encouraging data, as well as that the final verdict will be given at the end of the calendar year.
"We heard that at the end of the year, the capital budget will be realized at the level of 93 percent of the planned, which is a high degree of realization," added Nurković.
He stated that in these three quarters there was a deviation, so that we have some programs where more than 100 percent were executed.
"There is a need to balance and finance what we plan according to the programs," concluded Nurković.
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