Koreans fail, Spajićs threaten prosecution? Uncertain fate of airport concession tender

The South Korean company "Incheon International Airport Corporation" does not meet the technical part of the bid for the management of the Podgorica and Tivat airports, as it received 79,7 out of the minimum 80 points required to qualify for the continuation of the procedure, while the other bidder, the Luxembourg-American "Corporation America Airports SA", has just over 85 points, the result of the work of the tender commission so far, which has sharply divided its members.

This was confirmed to "Vijesti" by several sources familiar with the sessions of this 13-member body.

At yesterday's commission session, a heated debate continued between representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the cabinet of Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, on the one hand, and the rest of the body, which is supposed to decide which of the two bidders will receive the concession for the right to use the Podgorica and Tivat airports for 30 years, on the other.

"The session continued yesterday when only the scoring of the technical bids was completed. On Sunday, the Commission will deal with the financial aspect when the financial bids are to be opened. The Koreans' financial bid should not be evaluated, but must be returned to them sealed," said one of the sources for "Vijesti".

A source from the tender committee said that minutes have been drawn up on the scoring of the technical bids, which they are to verify at a meeting on Sunday, after which they will enter into legal force. If that happens, the report will be sent to the consultant, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is part of the World Bank, who will open the financial bid, which will then be opened by the tender committee.

Several sources said they do not expect the commission to complete its work on Sunday and prepare a report for the Ministry of Transport, which should then propose conclusions to the Government for adoption, i.e. a ranking list showing the best bid in the tender. The Government can adopt those conclusions or decide that the best bid does not meet Montenegro's needs and cancel the tender.

"Vijesti" sources claim that it is not entirely certain that at tomorrow's session of the Commission, the Koreans may "drop out" even before it is seen how much money they are offering for Montenegrin airports.

The deadline to submit the final report to the Ministry of Transport is June 9th.

The members of the Commission, who are representatives of the Ministry of Finance - Jelena Jovetić and Dragan Darmanović, and Milena Milović, who is an advisor to Prime Minister Milojko Spajić - left the session on Thursday because they "doubt the education of certain members and the inequality of bidders, and therefore do not want to give legitimacy to the process", sources from "Vijesti" said the day before yesterday.

Tivat Mayor Željko Komnenović, who represents the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro in the tender commission, believes that the South Korean offer should be considered, after the Government withdrew its amendments yesterday at an electronic session that would have denied municipalities a portion of their concession revenues.

At the meeting on Thursday, the Korean bid was scored by secret ballot of all 13 members of the commission, and they did not reach 80 points, which is a requirement to remain in the competition in the further procedure for selecting the most favorable bid.

"IFC, which is a consultant on the project, assessed after the initial review of the documentation that both bids were technically correct, while the majority in the tender committee thinks otherwise, namely that the Koreans do not meet the criteria for a technical bid," one of the sources told "Vijesti".

There was speculation on Thursday that representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister's Office had announced resignations at the time, while the President of the Tender Commission and Deputy Prime Minister Nik Đeljošaj later said that he had been notified of one resignation.

A source close to Spajić's camp, however, said yesterday that there will be no resignations, but that three representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister's Office will not sign the minutes of the tender commission, because they suspect the illegality of the scoring process.

"They will call the police and the prosecutor's office to investigate everything," said the source, when asked who should determine the alleged illegality of the procedure.

The reason is allegedly so that they would not be labeled as guilty for the annulment of the tender procedure, because the resignation of one member of the Commission would mean that the procedure would be suspended.

A government source said that out of the 13 members of the commission, four members of the commission were against the evaluation of the technical offer yesterday, "which was completely contrary to what was proposed by the IFC."

"The consultant rated one bidder with far more points, close to the maximum number of points. That same bidder was disqualified by the scoring of some members of the tender commission, as pointed out by the four members who voted against this decision today," the source said.

"The evaluation of technical bids is a specialized process, closely related to specific knowledge and skills for which the consultant has hired a specialized team."

The source pointed out that of the 13 members of the commission, six are from the Ministry of Transport, and that legal procedures do not require a secret ballot.

Yesterday, there was speculation that the IFC consultant would make a public statement, but that did not happen.

After yesterday's session, Đeljošaj announced that the tender commission, in its entirety and with the presence of consultants from IFC, concluded the session that had begun.

"Convinced that we will continue our work and complete the entire procedure in the interest of the state of Montenegro with full transparency and impartiality, I have scheduled the next session for Sunday, June 8 at 10.00:30 a.m. The session held and concluded today with the presence of the IFC consultant officially put an end to various speculations about the resignations and withdrawal of the consultant. I expect that we will forward the decision to the Ministry of Transport within the legal deadline so that it can be sent to the Government for decision within XNUMX days," said Đeljošaj.

Prime Minister Spajić's camp suspects that Đeljošaj and Transport Minister Maja Vukićević, who is also a member of the commission, allegedly aim to cancel the tender, because without major investments, Montenegrin airports would still not be a competitor to the airport in Tirana, and by remaining state-owned, they would still be in the "territory" of the Democratic People's Party, i.e. subject to party employment.

Another source from the government, however, claims that it is hardly possible that Đeljošaj and Vukićević have common interests in this procedure, and that the Minister of Transport is "doing her job honestly."

In a November interview with "Vijesti", Vukićević said that she was not explicitly against concessions for Montenegrin airports, but that she maintained a balanced approach on this issue, in order to carefully examine both options: the concession model and the model in which the state would itself operate the airports through an investment arrangement.

"My position is that the state must have some form of control even for the concession decision to be positive. We have numerous examples from the region where concessions were successful, but the entire process did not go without certain problems. In any case, I think that the state should retain its company, Aerodromi Crne Gore, which would have a supervisory role and would be ready to take over management in the event of any problems," Vukićević stressed.

The Ministry of Transport and the Prime Minister's Office did not respond to "Vijesti's" questions yesterday regarding the developments in the tender commission.

Komnenović "forced" the withdrawal of the amendment

The government, through amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government Financing, planned to give municipalities in whose territories the state grants concessions for airports, ports and roads 70 percent of the concession fee that the state takes from the buyer, instead of 20 percent.

In April, Komnenović announced that he was resigning from his membership in the Tender Commission, dissatisfied with the government's intention "to the detriment of the municipalities of Tivat and Zeta" to have the state take the largest part of the revenue that, according to the current legal solution, those municipalities should generate from the airport concession.

However, after being informed that the Rules of Procedure of the commission were written in such a way that the resignation of any member of the commission would automatically cause the collapse of the entire tender, which has been going on for seven years, Komnenović remained on the tender commission, because in the meantime, at a meeting with him and the President of the Municipality of Zeta, Mihailo Asanović, Spajić announced the abandonment of the Government's intention to take money from the concession from the two municipalities through legal amendments, with the proviso that these funds must be used exclusively for development projects in Tivat and Zeta.

Since the Government, despite Spajić's promise, has not withdrawn the proposed amendment from the parliamentary procedure in the meantime, Komnenović warned Đeljošaj and the Prime Minister yesterday before the Tender Commission session that he would no longer attend further Commission sessions until the Government did what Spajić had promised him. The Government immediately scheduled an electronic session and withdrew the amendments upon receiving that letter.