Although the summer season officially begins on May 1st, it is not yet known exactly how many beaches have lease agreements concluded.
The Public Company for Coastal Zone Management told "Vijesti" yesterday that it expects that more than 90 percent of beaches will have signed contracts by the start of the season, but did not specify how many beaches in total, nor specifically by coastal municipality.
The state-owned company's regulations on the transfer of parts of the coastal zone stipulate that the beaches will be open on May 1st, but it has never happened that they were fully open, and tenders were announced after that date, even during the peak of the summer season.
The public company claims that it was faced with a situation where, despite a timely tender, there were no offers for the lease, so they had to repeat the procedure again.
"In accordance with the amendments to the program of temporary facilities in the coastal zone for the period 2024-2028, the Public Enterprise has issued public calls for tenders for all planned bathing areas, as stipulated in the program. The number of bathing areas by municipality for which calls have been issued is as follows: Ulcinj 70, Bar 75, Budva 122, Kotor 35, Tivat 28, Herceg Novi 91. According to current data, we expect that the majority of contracts for the use of the coastal zone will be concluded by May 1. Based on the dynamics of the process and the implementation of procedures, it is estimated that by that date more than 90% of tenants will have signed contracts, which will meet the conditions for the opening and start of preparation of most bathing areas for the upcoming tourist season," they said in this state-owned enterprise.
When asked what will happen to the other beaches for which no contract has been concluded, and whether a public call will be issued and when it is realistically expected that these beaches will be opened, the Coastal Zone said that "the beaches for which no contract has been concluded so far are mostly located in locations for which there were no interested bidders or the bids received were incorrect."
"For such cases, in accordance with the procedure, the Public Enterprise has already initiated re-advertising procedures. At the moment, several repeated public calls are underway, which relate to most of these locations, and we expect that beneficiaries will soon be selected for them as well," the Coastal Zone responded.
They don't know if Alabar will give up on beaches
Asked to answer what the status of the beach on Velika Plaza in Ulcinj, for which the billionaire's company "Eagle Hills" applied, is Mohamed Alabara, the public company said that the offers submitted by that company were considered equally and in accordance with the procedures, as were all other applications received.
"The documentation was complete and submitted on time, and the offers were valid for evaluation. After the evaluation and ranking procedure was carried out, the Public Company's commissions made the appropriate decisions, according to which the company "Eagle Hills" was ranked as the first-ranked bidder for 9 out of a total of 19 locations for which it applied. The decisions have been submitted to the company, and we currently have no information on whether there will be any withdrawal on their part for any of the locations in question," the state-owned company stated.
According to the Temporary Facilities Program and the Atlas of Montenegrin Beaches and Beaches for the period 2024-2028, this summer the Montenegrin coast has 563 beaches.
"In the previous period, 489 bathing areas were identified on the Montenegrin coast, namely 134 in Herceg Novi, 35 in Kotor, 40 in Tivat, 133 in Budva, 81 in Bar and 66 in Ulcinj. With these amendments to the program, an additional 74 new bathing areas were formed (563 in total), of which 13 in Herceg Novi, 12 in Kotor, 8 in Tivat, 18 in Budva, 11 in Bar and 12 in Ulcinj. Taking into account the suggestions of the Municipalities of Herceg Novi, Kotor and Tivat, on whose territories a total of 12 city bathing areas had been planned so far (Herceg Novi 6, Kotor 2 and Tivat 4), the amendments increased their number, so that a total of 20 city bathing areas are now planned (Herceg Novi 9, Kotor 5 and Tivat 6). The amendments also included planning for new hotel bathing areas in the Municipalities of: Kotor (one), Tivat (one), Budva (two), Ulcinj (one), so the total number of planned hotel beaches now stands at 70," the document states.
The Coastal Department has remained "firmly committed" to not allowing the multi-million bids received for the lease of certain beaches on the Montenegrin coast to render the tender process meaningless.
“When it comes to the so-called 'million-euro bids', the position of the Public Enterprise, coordinated with the relevant ministry and the Government of Montenegro, is clear - we will not allow the procedure to be made meaningless in any way and damage to the state interest. In some cases, submissions of bids with extremely high monetary amounts have been recorded - ranging from several hundred thousand to as much as six million euros - which many times exceed the initial lease prices and significantly deviate from real market values. Such bids directly led to a violation of the integrity and balance of the tender procedure, because they affected the scoring system that, in addition to the offered amount, also evaluates other criteria - such as references from previous tenants. In practice, this means that the bidder, the previous tenant, with the minimum bid can be ranked immediately behind the bidder who submitted a million-euro bid, while all other participants with real and higher amounts are ranked lower. If the bidder with the "million-euro amount" subsequently withdraws, the previous tenant with the initial price comes to the fore, which indicates possible tactical manipulation with the aim of a favorable placement of predetermined participants," they replied to "Vijesti" without specifying how many such offers there were and for which beaches.
Jovanović claims that tenders are being delayed and there will be problems.
The President of the Municipality of Budva, Nikola Jovanović, said that preparations for the season are delayed, especially in the tender for the lease of the coastal zone and infrastructure works.
"We will not allow the responsibility for the delay to be transferred to us. Legal procedures will be strictly followed and no one will ask us to speed them up outside the law," said Jovanović.
At the meeting of the Board of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of the Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro, which was held yesterday in Budva, he stated that to date, not a single request for permission to work on beaches has been received.
"Based on the dynamics of the process and the implementation of procedures, it is estimated that by that date more than 90% of tenants will have signed contracts, which will meet the conditions for the opening and beginning of preparations for the majority of bathing areas for the upcoming tourist season," they said in Morski dobro.
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