Over the past year and a half, over 2,7 million euros have been paid for the expropriation of land for the construction of a new section of the highway from Mateševo to Andrijevica, and these are the Kolašin cadastral locations of Mateševo, Kraljske Bare and Sunga, the Action for Social Justice (ASP) announced today.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) stated in a statement that this is shown by data in their possession obtained through official channels.
ASP said that the data shows that the money was paid to individuals and only one legal entity, who are the owners of the land needed for the construction of the highway and for which the state has declared public interest.
"In the aforementioned period, i.e. until August 2024 until the middle of last month, 38 individual payments were recorded, mainly for the Kraljske Bare location. The least paid was 1,4 thousand euros, and the highest amount of expropriation paid was 336 thousand euros. The cost of expropriation is only one in a series of related costs for the complete investment project of the new Mateševo Andrijevica section, which could soon begin construction, and the current locations are only part of the future route designed for construction," ASP said.
The NGO said that they had previously announced that for a decade and a half, the state expropriation account had been in Prva Banka, majority-owned by the brother of former long-time state official Milo Đukanović, and that the balance on it in the first part of last year was over 44 million.
"Expropriation beneficiaries pay money into this account for all projects in Montenegro, and for a decade and a half there have been various projects - the Bar Boljare highway section, numerous regional and main roads, locations for the construction of tourist resorts, and the construction of energy facilities. The section from Mateševo to Andrijevica should be about 22 kilometers long, and the project is being implemented according to the so-called Yellow Fidic (design + construction). At the end of last year, financial bids for the construction of the new section were opened, but the value of the bids from qualified companies has not been announced," the ASP statement reads.
The NGO said that Montenegro has so far built the first section of the highway from Smokovac to Mateševo, for which only a certificate of takeover of works has been issued in March 2024.
"However, the certificate of good performance, the final invoice for the works and the completed situation have not yet been issued by the main contractor China Road and Bridge Corporation, the Ministry of Transport confirmed to ASP. This means that the project has not yet been closed. By the beginning of last year, the cost of the first section of the highway amounted to over one billion and 280,6 million euros, and this price includes all construction works, four types of supervision, the cost of expropriation and loans (interest, processing and compensation for unwithdrawn funds), as well as fiscal exemptions, which referred to exempted VAT, customs duties, taxes and contributions on the earnings of foreigners and the refund of part of excise duties on fuel," ASP said.
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