The leaders of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, through their ignorance and bad intentions towards that company, deliberately destroyed the state-owned maritime company Crnogorska plovidba AD Kotor (CP).
This was stated in an interview with "Vijesti" by the former president of the board of directors of that company, long-distance captain Jovo Lazarević.
"Representatives of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, starting with Minister Filip Radulović and his closest associates, embodied in State Secretaries Pavle Tripković and Jovan Šćekić, are persistently trying, without any basis or serious argument, to further denigrate the work of the former Board of Directors and former management of CP," believes Lazarević.
He and the former Board of Directors were dismissed by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs at the end of June, after Lazarević and some of the Board members strongly opposed the ministry's strategy to "save" CP by forcing it to sign a controversial and unprecedented in the global maritime industry contract on business and technical cooperation with Barska plovidba (BP). This arrangement, as it turned out, is part of a scenario called "Programmed closure of Crnogorska plovidba AD" from the analysis and "Program for the restructuring of shipping companies in Montenegro" prepared in March this year for the needs of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs by the company "Računovođa" doo from Podgorica, which is completely inexperienced and unreferenced in the maritime economy, the Institute of Certified Accountants of Montenegro.
Controversial sale below market price
The professional community in Montenegro warned about numerous illegal aspects of the agreement on business and technical cooperation between CP and BP, its inconsistency with the usual contractual relations in the global maritime industry, as well as its probable harmfulness for Crnogorska, and perhaps for both companies, at the time, but this did not deter Minister Radulović from insisting on its signing. Radulović presented it in public as “saving Crnogorska plovidba”.
However, the day after “Vijesti” published key parts of the “Program of Restructuring of Shipping Companies in Montenegro” and the fact that the ministry is not implementing a “rescue” but a scenario called “Programmed Shutdown of Montenegrin Shipping”, Radulović announced that “the Government no longer has any legal possibility to help Montenegrin Shipping” and initiated the urgent sale of both of its ships, which the Government accepted. The ships “Kotor” and “Dvadesetprvi maj”, which are currently worth between 19,5 and 21 million dollars on the market, have in the meantime been sold under controversial circumstances to the Danish company K/S Navision Group for a total of only 13,25 million dollars.
Although this transaction has been completed, the current management of CP, led by the Chairman of the Board of Directors Petar Janković and the Executive Director Vladimir Tadić, as well as the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, have not yet informed the public how much of that $13,25 million the company ultimately had left after settling all creditors' claims, unpaid crew salaries, and other things that have accumulated in the meantime as business expenses of this arrangement with the Danes.
The sale of Montenegrin ships has meanwhile begun to be investigated by the Special State Prosecutor's Office.
Minister Radulović and State Secretaries Pavle Tripković and Jovan Šćekić recently defended this controversial arrangement, which led to the practical destruction of Crnogorska plovidba, as it was left without a fleet, at a hearing before the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget of the Parliament of Montenegro. They also harshly criticized the results of the company's former management, led by Jovo Lazarević, accusing them of alleged incompetence, irresponsibility and even possible criminal and corrupt actions during the last regular overhaul and docking of the CP 2022 ships.
Crnogorska performed better than Barska plovidba
Commenting on all the events of the past months that led to the practical destruction of the company from Kotor, as well as the positions that Radulović and his associates presented to the Committee on Economy, Captain Jovo Lazarević told "Vijesti" that the leadership of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs "is persistently trying, without any basis or serious argument, to denigrate the work of the former Board of Directors and the former management of Crnogorska plovidba as much as possible."
"When analyzing business results reported in income statements, they persistently avoid publicly stating evident facts that obviously do not suit them, in order to inform the public."
They insist on highlighting the negative business result-loss that CP achieved in 2024 of 778 thousand euros, but they also refuse to acknowledge what was positive in the company's business, which is the fact that in the three years before 2024, for 2021, 2022 and 2023, CP achieved, in all years, positive business results-profits.
"Overall, in the period from 2021-2024, CP achieved a positive business result according to the Income Statement - a profit of over 1,7 million euros," said Lazarević, emphasizing that at the same time, the leaders of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs are avoiding publicly stating the fact that Barska plovidba had a loss of 2,387 million euros in 2024, which was three times greater than the loss incurred by CP in that year.
According to Lazarević, in the period from 2021-2024, Barska "achieved an overall negative business result - a loss of over 1,7 million euros, which is in complete contrast to the result achieved by CP, which was positive for the same period."
"This means that Barska, which according to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs was supposed to "save" Crnogorska in the period 2021-24, achieved a business result that was 3,5 million euros worse than CP. All these negative results of BP, compared to the positive results of CP in the observed period, did not prevent Radulović and his associates from practically handing over the management and administration of CP's ships to BP's management in April 2025, through a business-technical cooperation agreement. How Barska's management, from the moment of takeover, managed and administered the ships was evident in the numerous problems that arose on the ships, especially on the "Kotor" on which, apparently, ignorance or malicious intent led to the ship being stopped by Port State Control in the ports of Colombia, the USA and Great Britain, within a period of about a month or two. This had never happened before in CP before, that one of our ships had stopped so many times in such a short period," said Lazarević, adding that in the shorter There were sometimes CP ship stops in the past, “but it could have been at the level of one stopover over a period of two to three years, or even longer.”
“God forbid the ships”
According to him, this way of managing the CP ships by Barska plovidba led to their express sale, "or rather, a sale, considering the realized price, which is at the level of 2/3 of the actual market price of these ships."
"This kind of, what honest and fair people would say 'God forbid', end of CP ships could have occurred solely as a result of ignorance or intent, which should be determined by the competent institutions," said the former president of the CP Board of Directors.
Lazarević called out the leaders of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs for "ignorance and ill will towards Crnogorska plovidba AD Kotor", emphasizing that this is clearly seen "in their inept attempt to present the realized costs of the last regular ten-year overhaul and docking of the ship, which was carried out in 2022, as being about 500 thousand dollars higher than the costs of the regular ten-year overhaul and docking of the ship of Barska plovidba AD Bar, which was carried out in 2024."
"Namely, during the last regular overhaul and docking of ships, CP was obliged to install a ballast water treatment system on its ships, the price of which at that time was around 500 thousand dollars, while BP did not have such an expense during their ten-year regular overhaul and docking of the ship in 2024. BP had this expense during the five-year docking in 2019, when the BWTS system was installed on their ships. At that time, this cost Barska close to 800 thousand dollars," explained Lazarević, adding that in addition to this, during the last regular overhaul of "Kotor" and "Dvadesetprvi Maja" in 2022, CP, unlike Barska, had to allocate another 280 thousand dollars per ship to replace the hydraulic pipes on the deck, which had corroded due to the influence of seawater.
BP did not incur this expense, because the pipes on its ships are located below deck and are not exposed to seawater.
What about the valuation of the Dubai firm?
Lazarević called out the Ministry of Maritime Affairs for not making any public statements "about the study commissioned half a year ago, on the technical capabilities and capacities of CP ships, which was supposed to be done by a control company from Dubai."
"For that job, CP, under pressure from Minister Radulović and his associates, paid 36 thousand euros (40.000 was invoiced, with a 10 percent discount).
According to reports from the ship, a representative of the Dubai company carried out "some kind of inspection" on both ships, with the inspection lasting several hours per ship. For such work, according to prices valid on the international maritime market, one could not get more than 3 thousand euros," he pointed out.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs is now not mentioning this (too) expensively paid analysis from Dubai at all in its public appearances, but is only dealing with estimates of the value of the ship "Kotor", which was estimated in July by the British companies "Drewry Financial Research Services Ltd" and "Braemar Valuations Limited" at 9,5 and 9,25 million dollars, respectively.
Lazarević emphasizes that, in order to conduct a quality inspection of ships that would result in a detailed study on the technical capabilities and capacities of ships and which would be a "roadmap" for the future actions of decision-makers (in this case, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs) on the future status of ships and the company to which they belong, "at least two to three inspectors are needed, and they would have to conduct an inspection per ship that would last at least two to three days."
"However, it is obvious that the Ministry of Maritime Affairs relied on its own personnel capacities, which the public could see at the session of the Committee on Economy and Finance, so they did not need any real study on the technical capabilities of the ships to decide to sell them far below the market price," concluded Lazarević.
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