Executive Director of the Municipal Enterprise "Čistoća" Gordana Lekić addressed the councilors of the Pljevlja Municipal Assembly with the initiative to lease one of the most famous catering facilities in the city, Motel "Vodice", referring to the decision of the Board of Directors adopted at the end of April this year.
She reminded that the Motel "Vodice" is temporarily closed and that there are currently no conditions for its operation within that municipal enterprise.
She cited discontinuity in business during the winter and summer periods as the main reason.
Although, she claims, business during the summer period was at a satisfactory level and above expectations, it was not enough to make up for the lack of income in the winter months.
Motel Vodice was opened in 1970. It was owned by ŠIK “Velimir Jakić”, and then by Rudnik uglja until 2009, when that company, due to accumulated financial obligations, compensated part of its property with the Government, ceding it, among other things, the motel. After failing to sell Motel “Vodice” through public bidding on several occasions, the Government ceded it to the Municipality of Pljevlja without compensation.
She particularly emphasized that the operation of the motel requires the engagement of labor, which represents a serious financial challenge for the Company.
"The operation of this catering facility within DOO 'Čistoća' was accompanied by various circumstances that continuously made business operations difficult," she stated.
Among these circumstances, she singled out the cost of wages, because the provisions of the Sectoral Collective Agreement from November 2023 were applied to the employees of the Motel, which implied higher allocations than in the private sector. In addition, the business was also burdened with the obligation to comply with the Public Procurement Law. Organizing tenders, as stated, often led to delays by suppliers, delivery of poor quality goods or expiration of the deadline, as well as incomplete orders, which directly reflected on the quality of service.
An additional problem was the high employee turnover, especially in the positions of waiters and bartenders.
"The inability to establish permanent staff significantly made it difficult to achieve business continuity," the director explained.
The closure of the Motel, as emphasized, prevented further negative business operations that would have had a serious impact on the overall financial results of the Company.
However, despite the closure, the facility still requires significant costs - security, utilities, and maintenance, which represents a financial burden from month to month without any recurring income.
"It should be borne in mind that the Company has invested significant funds in equipping the facility in the previous period. For this reason, we believe that it would be justified and fair for DOO 'Čistoća' Pljevlja, with the consent of the Municipality, to lease this facility and generate income from it. In this way, the investments would gradually be returned, and the facility would fulfill its economic and social purpose," said the executive director.
The address specified that the legal basis for this initiative lies in the Law on State Property and the Regulation on the Sale and Lease of State Property. Support for the initiative, as emphasized, is necessary because the Pljevlja Municipal Assembly, through previous decisions, assigned the property in question to the management and use of DOO “Čistoća”, but the legal framework requires that the Motel cannot be leased without the consent of the founder - the Municipality of Pljevlja.
"Putting the Motel "Vodice" into operation through leasing it to a third party would bring multiple benefits - to the Society, the Municipality and the citizens of Pljevlja. In this way, the facility would finally make sense and justify the investment," concluded the director.
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